One-Stop Center supports foreign-affiliated firms advancing to Shizuoka Prefecture to build plants or business bases.

Investment Guide

Q. Representative foreign companies invested in Japan

A. At 2016 there are approximately 3000, manufacturing company’s weight is about 20%(by Toyo Keizai Shinposha)

Situation of investment by foreign companies in Japan

  • The number of located companies: 3,224
  • Country ・region  : U.S.A 1,168, Germany 394, France 217, UK 204, Korea 167, China 107 etc.
  • Kind of industry  :
Industry Europe North
America
Asia others Total Weight
Manufacturing 253 282 87 51 673 21%
Other 994 927 464 45 2,430 79%
total 1,247 1,209 551 96 3,103 100%
Weight 40% 39% 18% 3% 100%

*『survey foreign affiliated company 2019』

 Types of manufacturing case

  • manufacturers invested in Japan after 2018
Company name Nationality
Region
Industry Cap
(m yen)
%
SAMPO JAPAN TAIWAN Wholesale: electrical appliance 8 100
H C Starc Tungsten Germany Wholesale: steel metal 0.6 100
COPAN Japan Italy Wholesale 10 70
TNO Japan Holland Service 100
Aflac Insurance services USA Life insurance 30000 100
T. Rowe Price Japan USA Consultant investment 100 100
TOSEI China Wholesale chemical product 10 Apan
AUX Japan Institute China Research electrical appliance 80 100
SEAPA Japan Australia Wholesale 16 100
Dow chemical Japan USA Chemistry 65
HAKUSHIN JAPAN China Temporary staff agency 5 100
SENSHIOKU China Wholesale electrical appliance 6 100
Evatec Japan Switzerland Wholesale precision machine 5 100
EcoSea Tech Chili Wholesale 9 100
GHSP Japan USA Wholesale transportation machine 20 100
Manulife Financial Advisors Canada Finance 400 100
HIS Markit Japan GK UK It Soft system 50 100
Gripple Japan UK Wholesale 5 100
Decision Resources Japan USA Consulting 10 100

*『survey foreign affiliated company 2019』

Q. How to establish Godo gaisha, procedures to register and report

A. Procedures to establish Godo gaisha are little bit different to other cases.

  • It is complicated compare to representative office and branch office.(it needs to make the articles of incorporation and form the member of board of directors issued by law).
  • It is easier than kabushiki gaisha(limited company)(do not need certification of the legal office and collection of stock investors)

Get the certification of investors

Certification of investors and the oath of deposition and the certification of company’s seal

Make the articles of incorporation

Decide the fundamental issues below but do not need certification by the legal agency

trade mark, address of head office, purpose of business, fiscal year, amount of capital, investors and amount of investment of each investment, representative

・executive officer(*1)etc.

(*1) it does not need the board of the members of directors and inspector etc.

Payment for investment

Pay to the bank account

Apply the company and company seal to the legal office

Apply by representative and documents required are certification of fulfillment of payment, certification of the company seal, consent of assumption of representative.

Any other procedures to start up

After registration open the bank account of company apply to the tax office and labor standards office

*It takes approximately one month after making the articles of incorporation.
*It is better depend on specialists.

Q. Procedures to establish a subsidiary by limited company =register and report

A. Generally two types of company are established, Kabushiki Gaisha and Godo Gaisha.

In case of Kabushiki Gaisha it has features like below

  • It needs complicated procedures compared to representative office and branch office(making articles of incorporation and form member of the board of directors as independent corporation.)
  • Compared to Godo Gaisha’s procedures are complicated (its condition is strict to set directors and collect stock investors)

There are two types to collect investors

Type Content Feature
Proposer All stocks issued when the company establishing are undertaken by the proposer Procedures are comparably easy and generally it is used for individual.
Collect Any part of stocks issued when the company establishing are undertaken by the proposer and the other are taken by investors collected Used for establish large company to gather many investors

 In case of proposer

Make the articles of incorporation

Fundamental issues below have to be decided

Trade name, address of head office, purpose of business, fiscal year, amount of capital, amount of issued stocks, address of company, director and representative, general stock holders meeting and any other formed agency except for director(*1)etc.

(*1) depend on types of company, the size or open or closed content might be different

Certify the articles of incorporation

Get the certification at the notary public agency with certification of registration of parent company, statement of oath, certification of seals of all proposers.

Payment for stocks issued at establishing

Proposers have to pay amount of stocks for certify capital to the account appointed.

Election of establishing directors and other members of board of directors

Elect directors issued in the articles of incorporation by majority of proposers

Apply for registration company and seal to legal office

  • Register to legal office within two weeks after the finish of procedures or the day decided by proposers
  • With letters of consent of proposers, certifications of seal , consent of directors assumption etc.

Procedures to start business

For open the company’s bank account, apply to the tax office and the labor standards office etc. after registration of company

In case of collect stock investors

Make the articles of incorporation and certified by legal agency

Same as type of proposer

Collect the stock investors in the beginning

Collect stock investors agreed by proposers

Apply the stocks collected and payment

Investors apply for stocks and after decided allotment proposers and investors pay for stocks.

General meeting for set up

Proposer collect members for general meeting for set up and elect directors for setup and member of the board of directors issued by articles of incorporation.

Apply to register company and seal to the legal office

  • Same as type of proposer
  • In addition type of proposer it needs documents「certification of application of acceptance for investors collection」「certification of storage of payment for stock investment」

Any other procedures

After registration of company open the bank account of company report to the tax office and labor standards office etc.

 

  • It will need two months for procedures after making the articles of incorporation.
  • It is better depend on specialists for procedures.

Q. How to establish branch office and report procedures to any offices

A.

  • The procedures are a little bit complicated compared to representative office case.(the company’s law and commercial register law require to report to register branch office and tax offices etc.)
  • It’s easier than subsidiary case to establish branch office. (It is required to register, but do not need to make articles of incorporation and recruit shareholders.

Decision representative in Japan

At least one representative has to be actually live in japan.

Check whether need or not to report branch office advance observing foreign exchange law.

According to the industry needed to report to the Japan bank.(aircraft, new clear power plant etc.)。

Make the documents need for register and certification

  • Prepare the documents below to register branch office.
  • Documents certify existence of the head office in foreign country(oath certified by public organization, notary public, agency of government of the country parent company located)
  • Certification of representative in Japan qualified by the company(letter of appointment by head office etc.)
  • Articles of incorporation of parent company or documents of sales license etc.

Register company and seal to legal affairs bureau

apply with oath certified by public organization and revenue stamp.

Get the certifications of company registration and seal

get the certification approximately after two weeks.

Another procedures

after registration it is possible to open bank account of branch office, report to tax office and labor standards office etc.

*It will take one month to establish branch office after making oath certified by public organization.
*In general it is better to request doing the procedures to the specialist like judicial scrivener.

Q. Establish representative office.

A. It is required no legal procedures, but need to decide the address of the office.

  • It is possible to employ staff but required report to the labor standards office, the public employment security office and the social insurance office like the case of branch office.
  • Financing businesses like bank, insurance company and so on are required to register.

the representative office to the financial services agency.

Q. Types of establish base in japan and hoe to decide

A. See the investment from capital there are 2 types, ”A: establish by only yourself” ”B: joint stock and management”  in the case A 3types「representative office」「branch office」「subsidiary(Japanese company)」 it needs to consider from the view point of your business purpose and business scale.

Types of form

Representative office Branch office Subsidiary
Kabushiki Kaisha

Limited company

Godo Gaisha

LLC

Sales promotion Disapproved Approved
Decision Your country Japan
Registration Unnecessary Necessary
Cost to establish ①registration:100thousand yen

②stamp: 50

③agency fee:440

①:250

②: 50

③:490

①:100

②: 50

③:440

Capital unnecessary 1yen or more
Number of investors 1 person or more
Listing on the stock market approved Disapproved
Taxation for

Profit

Basically taxable to the income in Japan All income (Japan and out of Japan)

and investors dividend

All income (Japan and out of Japan)

and investors dividend

Merit Unnecessary registration Easy procedure and low cost Relatively trustworthy Widely free handed in management
Demerit Restricted for business Looked like unreliable compare to corporation(financing) Relatively need complicated procedures and cost Compare to limited company not well known and unapproved stock listed

*By Investment Guidebook of JETRO etc. (Shizuoka prefecture)

Characteristic

(1)Representative office

  • It is the office for supplementary action to promote business of foreign company by public relations and prepare for full-scale business in the future.
  • It approved market research, collecting information, purchasing equipment and public relations, but prohibited to direct sales.
  • It is unnecessary to report to public agency, if it has no permanent equipment in japan nontaxable for profit of corporation.

(It needs report to the financial service agency, if the business is financial like bank or insurance ).

  • Due to impossible to register, it is impossible to get bank account and act like corporation.

(2)Branch office

  • It needs to establish branch office or subsidiary to do sales promotion or continuous business in Japan. Relatively it’s easier to establish branch office.
  • It is possible to start business after register decide the address of the base and have representative. Differ to representative office branch office is taxed but it is possible to open bank account.
  • It is a part of foreign company, fiscal year has to be same as the parent company, and the parent company has to be responsible to the branch office’s debt and credit by the branch office’s action.

(3)Subsidiary(Japanese corporation)

  • It has corporate rights in Japan and has to form a member of the board of directors to start business.
  • There are two types of subsidiary responsibility is limited are Kabushiki Gaisha(limited company)and Godo Gaisha(LLC).(in Japan there are another types of companies Gomei Gaisha, Goshi Gaish, but those types require non-limited responsibility. So it is very rare to establish these types.)。
  • The investors of Kabushiki geisha and Godo Gaisha have limited responsibility, in the invested amount, but in Godo Gaisha’s establishment it has merit needs cheaper cost freely management, but in japan Godo Gaisha is looked like is not well known and difficult to gather large amount of investment etc.

Q. Flow of establish base in japan

A.  Procedures are different depend on amount of investment, kind of industry or having partner or not. Actually the procedures will be done for your individual case.it needs to progress procedures by each specialist like judicial scrivener, administrative procedure specialists etc.

reference

For preparing please contact and use various kinds of prefectural agencies, specialists. Shizuoka prefecture will assist you by “one stop center for foreign companies” it has the network consists of specialists experienced in foreign business.

judicial scrivener(company and land registration)、certified administrative procedures(agent for procedures to public offices)、licensed tax accountant(accounting, agency for report to tax office)、social insurance agency(labor and social insurance, employment procedure)real estate agency(introduce office, land for business) temporary staff agency.

Q. Support in Shizuoka prefecture

A. “One stop center for foreign companies” supports your procedure and research for establishment base in Shizuoka by making full use of the network consists of public and private sector.

Incentives for establishment in Shizuoka Pref.

Item(subsidy) contents Requirement
Rent fee for office 50% of rent fee

(maximum 500 thousand yen/year)

Employ 3 or over

15㎡ or wider

1year or longer(rent)

Investment for factory equipment 70% of building and equipment

(maximum 1billion yen)

Amount of investment 500 million or more,

increase employment

Purchase Land, employment 20~40% of land fee

(maximum 400 million yen)

1,000㎡ or larger,

Increase employment

* please check One Stop Center(https://www.onestop-shizuoka.jp/shizuoka/english.html)Shizuoka prefecture(https://www.pref.shizuoka.jp/sangyou/sa-530-yugu/

Q. Famous corporations invested in Shizuoka pref.

A. Large factories are located in Shizuoka pref. below.

Factory

Employ 1,000 or more, land scale is 10ha or wider

Company name industry Year

invested

ASMO Co., Ltd. Main factory Transportation machine 1979
JIYATOCO Ltd. Head quarter   1999
SUZUKI Motor Corporation Iwata factory   1967
 Sagara factory   1993
Head quarter   1939
Kosai factory   1970
Toyota Motor Higashinihon Corporation east Fuji Factory   1967
Honda Motor Co., Ltd. Hamamatsu factory   1954
矢崎部品㈱ 榛原工場   1967
Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd.   1966
Koito Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Electric machine 1936
Toshiba Carrier Co., Ltd. Fuji factory   1943
Hitachi Appliances, Inc. Shimizu factory   1943
Prime earth EV Energy Co., Ltd. Head quarter   2007
Fujitsu Co., Ltd. Numazu factory   1976
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation Shizuoka factory   1954
Meidensha Corporation  Numazu factory   1961
Asahi corporation Fuji branch Chemical 1959
Fuji film corporation Fujinomiya factory   1963
Ricoh  company ltd. Numazu factory   1960
NTN corporation Iwata factory Multipurpose machine 1960
Toshiba machine co., ltd. Numazu head quarter   1942
Yamaha Corporation Toyooka factory Other manufacturing 1970
Yamaha Corporation   1922
Mitsubishi Aluminum Co., Ltd. Fuji factory   1962
Canon Inc. Fuji Susono research park Development 1996
Toyota Motor Corporation Higashi fuji research factory   1966
Yazaki Corporation Y-CITY world head quarters   1998

*2014 Shizuoka prefectural government

Foreign corporation

Weight of capital by foreign is 30% or more, land is 3ha or larger

name industry Investment year
Sensate technologies japan ltd. Electric machine 1979
NSK Warner K.K.   1989
Clariant Japan K.K. Chemistry 1967
Du Pont-Mitsui Fluorochemicals Co., ltd.   1965
Chevron Japan Ltd.   1989
International Flavors & Fragrances Japan Ltd. Food 1977
Nestle Japan Ltd. Drink 1972
Jansen Pharmaceutical K.K. Medicine 1993
Nippon Covidien Ltd. Medical equipment 1974
Corning japan K.K. Ceramic industry 1989
Triumph International Japan, Ltd. Clothing 1995
Gotemba Tetra Pak L.L.C. Paper ・pulp 1971
Oerlikon Nihon Balzers Coating Co., Ltd. Other manufacturing 2004

*2014 Shizuoka prefectural government

Q. Main industry in Shizuoka prefecture.

A. Main industry of Shizuoka pref.is manufacturing and the share and rank of Japan are in the list.

manufacturing industry’s rank of prefecture in Japan(the number of company is employing more than 4 employee)

rank number(place) Employee Amount of Products shipment(billion)
1 Osaka 15,784 Aichi 846,075 Aichi 46,968
2 Aichi 15,576 Osaka 443,034 Kanagawa 17,956
3 Saitama 10,902 Shizuoka 405,154 Osaka 16,996
4 Tokyo 10,322 Saitama 396,691 Shizuoka 16,787
5 Shizuoka 9,138 Hyogo 361,956 Hyogo 15,666

*The Ministry of Economy and Industry (2018)

 Shizuoka’s main industry higher ranked in Japan(amount of products shipment)

industry products amount(billion) rank share
Transportation machine Motor vehicle, motor bike 4,269 2 7.4%
Electrical appliances Air conditioner,refrigerator 2,014 2 11.7%
Chemical products Plastic, cosmetic 1,742 5 6.2%
Drink, tobacco Mineral water, tea 845 2 8.9%
Foodstuff Fishery food, seasoning 1,298 7 4.7%
pulp・paper Paper 802 1 11.6%
Machine Machine for agriculture and construction etc. 861 6 4.3%
Medicine Medicine 672 1 9.7%
Medical equipment catheter 359 1 18.4%

*the ministry of economy and industry survey of manufacturing (2018)

Targeted industry

  • Shizuoka prefectural government assists advancing newly growing industry and promote accumulating new industry by reinforcing the base industry, cultivating.
  • New industry accumulating cluster
    a Phalma valley project(medicine , medical)
    b Food science hills project(food)
    c Photon valley project(optics・electronics)
  • Growing industry
    next generation car, aircraft and space, medical・welfare equipment, robot,
    Environment, optical technics
Information
  • 2023/03/01 Information about entering to Japan
  • 2021/03/15 Ministry of foreign affairs of Japan: Border enforcement measures to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus https://wwwmofa.go.jp/ca/fna/page4e_001053.html
  • 2020/08/31 Shizuoka Pref. COVID19 Hot Line in 19 languages for 24 hours
  • 2020/07/10 Meti’s support measures Covid19 https://www.meti.go.jp/emglish/covid-19/index.html
  • 2020/05/13 guide to special support cash payments https://kyufukin.soumu.go.jp/ pdf file for 11 languages

supporting
foreign-affiliated companies

One-Stop Center.

One-Stop Service Center | Shizuoka international Business Association.

Shizuoka International Business Association,
44-1 Ohtemachi, Aoi-ku, Shizuoka-shi, Shizuoka 420-0853 Japan.

Telephone:
+81-(0)54-254-5161

Facsimile:
+81-(0)54-251-1918

* Under entrustment from the Shizuoka prefectural government, the Center is operated by the Shizuoka International Business Association (SIBA).

* The cost for the operation of the Center is born by the prefectural government. Anyone can use the Center free of charge.