Gyoseishoshi, Zeirishi, Shihoshoshi: Which One Do You Actually Need

In most countries you hire a lawyer and an accountant and that covers it. Japan divides the same territory across several licensed professions, each with a legally protected scope, and hiring the wrong one wastes weeks.

Worse, some of them will politely take your money for the part they can do and leave you to discover that the rest requires somebody else.

Here is the map.

Gyoseishoshi, the paperwork specialist

行政書士. Prepares and submits applications to government agencies.

This is who you want for visas and residence status. Certificate of Eligibility, status changes, extensions, permanent residency applications. A 行政書士 registered as a certified immigration lawyer can submit on your behalf, which means you do not queue at the immigration office yourself.

They also handle licences and permits: food and beverage, construction, recruitment, travel, alcohol sales, and the long list of business activities that need one in Japan. They can draft the articles of incorporation for a new company.

What they cannot do is register the company at the Legal Affairs Bureau, or represent you in a dispute, or file your taxes.

Shihoshoshi, the registration specialist

司法書士. Handles registration with the Legal Affairs Bureau.

This is who registers your company. Incorporation, and later any change to the registered particulars: a new director, a change of address, an increase in capital, a change of company name. All of it is a registration and all of it goes through this route.

They also handle real estate registration, which is why you meet one if you buy property.

Company registration is the point where new founders most often get confused, because the person who drafted the articles is frequently not the person who can register the company. Many firms in Japan bundle the two, with a 行政書士 and a 司法書士 in the same office. Ask directly whether the quoted service includes the registration itself.

Zeirishi, the tax specialist

税理士. Tax filings and tax advice.

This is your accountant in the sense most founders mean it. Corporate tax return, consumption tax, withholding, year end adjustment, and usually the monthly bookkeeping that makes all of that possible.

Tax representation is legally restricted to this profession. Nobody else can file your corporate return for you, and a bookkeeper who is not a 税理士 can keep your records but cannot sign off the filing.

This is the adviser you will speak to most often and the one worth choosing carefully. Look for one who has foreign owned clients, because a firm that has never dealt with cross border payments, foreign directors, or a parent company abroad will be slow and cautious in ways that cost you.

Shakai hoken roumushi, the employment specialist

社会保険労務士, usually shortened to 社労士. Social insurance, labour law, payroll, and employment paperwork.

You need one when you hire. The enrolments in health insurance, pension, employment insurance, and workers' accident insurance, the work rules document, the overtime agreement, and the annual social insurance recalculation in July.

A small company with one or two employees can sometimes have its 税理士 handle payroll and skip this. Once you have real headcount, or the moment you have an employment problem, this is a specific profession for a reason.

Bengoshi, the lawyer

弁護士. The full legal profession, and the only one that can represent you in court.

You want a 弁護士 for disputes, litigation, and contracts where something significant is at stake. Also for anything involving dismissal of an employee, which is the area where amateur handling is most expensive in Japan.

For routine commercial contracts, plenty of companies operate with templates and an adviser reviewing the important ones. For anything that could end in a court, do not economise.

How to actually assemble this

For a typical foreign founder setting up a small company, the realistic team is:

• A 行政書士 for the visa, engaged first, because your status determines everything else.
• A 司法書士 for the incorporation, often through the same firm.
• A 税理士 on a monthly retainer from the point the company exists.
• A 社労士 added when you hire your first employee.
• A 弁護士 on call rather than retained, until you need one.

Bilingual firms that cover several of these exist and they charge a premium for it. Whether that premium is worth paying depends on your Japanese and your tolerance for uncertainty. My honest view is that in year one it usually is, and that by year three you can unbundle and pay less.

The question to ask before you engage anyone

Ask exactly which filings are included, which are not, and who does the ones that are not.

That single question surfaces the scope gap before you have paid, and the scope gap is where almost all the frustration in this system lives. A good adviser answers it immediately and tells you who to call for the rest. An adviser who is vague about it is telling you something useful too.