Becoming a Sole Proprietor in Japan: Visa Rules, Kaigyo Todoke & Tax

Quick answer (30 seconds): Filing as a sole proprietor (kojin jigyonushi) in Japan is administratively easy — the "kaigyo todoke" (notification of business opening) is a free one-page form you submit to the tax office within about a month of starting. The hard part is your visa: you can only freely run a business if your status of residence permits self-employment — that means spouse of a Japanese national, permanent resident, or long-term resident (teijusha). Most work visas do not allow open-ended self-employment, and to run an actual company you'd need the Business Manager visa (whose requirements were sharply tightened in October 2025). Check your visa first, then file.

Disclaimer: General information, not legal or tax advice. Immigration and tax rules are strict and changing — confirm your eligibility with the Immigration Services Agency (出入国在留管理庁) and the National Tax Agency (国税庁), and consider an immigration specialist (行政書士) or tax accountant (税理士).

Step 0 (the real first step): can your visa do this?

Before any paperwork, confirm your status of residence allows self-employment:

• Allowed (unrestricted): Spouse/Child of Japanese National, Permanent Resident, Spouse of PR, Long-Term Resident (teijusha) — these are status-based and let you work or run a business freely.
• Generally NOT allowed open-endedly: standard work visas (e.g., Engineer/Humanities/International Services) are tied to employment in a specific field — free self-employment usually isn't permitted without the right status or permission.
• To run a company / get a self-employment-based status: the Business Manager visa (see below).
• Tourist / visa waiver: no business activity allowed at all.

If you're on a work visa and want to freelance on the side, that's a different question — see the side-job & visa-rules guide.

The Business Manager visa got much stricter (Oct 2025)

If you want a visa running your business, the requirements were :