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Sole Proprietorship Opening Notification

The notification you file with the tax office for your place of tax payment when you start working as a freelancer or running your own business. Filing for blue-return status and registering as an invoice issuer are separate applications.

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Eligibility Check

This applies when you start a business that will generate business income, real estate income or timber income. The same form covers opening, expanding, relocating or closing an office or place of business

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Documents needed

Notification of opening or closing a sole proprietorship (download from the NTA site, or prepare it in e-Tax software)
Photo ID — needed each time you file on paper with your My Number written on it, either shown or attached as a copy. Not required when filing through e-Tax
If you want blue-return status: the application for approval of blue return filing (a separate procedure)
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Steps

1

Prepare the notification in e-Tax software, or download the form from the NTA site and fill it in

2

File it with the head of the tax office for your place of tax payment — by e-Tax, in person, or by post

3

If you want blue-return status, file the application for approval as well

4

If you will issue qualified invoices, apply separately to register as an invoice issuer

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Important notes

The deadline is the income tax filing deadline for the year in which the event occurred (Income Tax Act art. 229). If it falls on a weekend or public holiday, it moves to the next day

File with the head of the tax office for your place of tax payment. Even if your office sits in a different district, no filing with any other tax office is needed

Tax offices are open 8:30 to 17:00 and closed on weekends and public holidays, but you can still file by post or through the after-hours drop box

The blue-return application is due by March 15 of the year you want it to apply to — or within two months of starting the business if you started it on or after January 16 of that year

Registering as a qualified invoice issuer is optional. A tax-exempt business that registers must file consumption tax returns for two years from the registration date, and that holds even if the registration is later withdrawn (you remain a taxable business through the tax period containing the second anniversary)

A tax-exempt business can name a desired registration date, which must be at least 15 days after the application is submitted. If you have just started a business, applying by the last day of the tax period backdates the registration to the first day of that period — for a sole proprietor that is January 1 of the year you started, not the day you started

Once registered, your details are published on the NTA's public register of qualified invoice issuers

Official info verified: 2026-09-17 / Source: nta.go.jp
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