Verify a Japanese property company

When you need to verify a Japanese property company, separate what a company claims from what the public record shows. Japanese company and property records are not one central database. They are split across the Legal Affairs Bureau (法務局) for registration, e-Gov for statutes, and municipal planning departments for building and zoning files. The sections below give you the order in which to check records, the Japanese search terms to use, and a decision rule for when an archived claim is usable.

The one-sentence distinction

A company’s 13-digit corporate number survives name changes, address changes and mergers; a trading name or an archived consultancy page does not.

The decision rule

Before you rely on any archived consultancy claim, find the company’s present 商号 (trade name) and 法人番号 (corporate number) in a primary record dated after the claim was published. If the company has been dissolved, merged, or renamed, the archived claim is historical, not current. Do not treat a website snapshot as evidence of a live business.

Start with identifiers, not marketing

Before you search any registry, write down the identifiers that anchor every record:

1. 商号 (shōgō), the registered trade name, exactly as written.
2. 法人番号 (hōjin bangō), the 13-digit corporate number assigned by Japan’s National Tax Agency. This is the most reliable key for company searches.
3. Registered address, the address on the present register, not the address on an old website or business card.

If you only have a trading name or an English translation of a company name, do not assume it maps to a single legal entity. Japanese company names can be registered in kanji, katakana, or romaji, and several unrelated companies may share similar English renderings. The 法人番号 is the only stable identifier that survives name changes, address changes, and mergers.

For an individual owner who is not a company, the equivalent anchor is the person’s name and address as recorded in the land register (登記簿), and, if the property is inherited, the family registry (戸籍, koseki). Do not rely on an archived consultancy claim that a company “specialises in” redevelopment; the present register is the only source that tells you what the company is today.

How Japanese property records are organised

Japanese property records are fragmented. There is no single national portal that combines ownership, boundaries, zoning, and building history for private use. The most common error is to assume that a company name, a property address, or a project name can be searched in one database and treated as authoritative. In practice, the same parcel can appear in several separate records with different parcel numbers, road frontages, or owner names, and the official land register (登記簿) is maintained locally by each Legal Affairs Bureau (法務局), not by a central national registry.

For property viability research, start with the parcel, not the company. Identify the land by its real-property registration (不動産登記) details: the prefecture, city, ward, district, lot number, and land category. These identifiers are the only stable link between the cadastral map, the land register, the fixed-asset tax register, and any building confirmation application. A company name can change, but the parcel identifier does not.

The two identifiers that anchor a company search

Japanese companies are identified by two official numbers:

• 法人番号 (hōjin bangō), the 13-digit corporate number assigned by the National Tax Agency. It is stable across a company’s lifetime and does not change when the company changes its name or address.
• 商号 (shōgō), the registered trade name. Trade names change; the number does not. A name alone is not a reliable identifier because a different company can later register the same trade name.

To verify a company, locate the 法人番号 first. The official source is the National Tax Agency’s corporate registry search (法人番号公表サイト, houjin-bangou kouhyou site). It returns the present trade name, the head office address, and the date of registration for each corporate number. If you have a Japanese company name from an old contract or a saved web page, search the corporate number site first and confirm the number matches the name on the document you hold. Do not assume an archived trading name is current; the number is the stable identifier, not the name.

Primary records before archived claims

Treat any archived consultancy claim, project description, or “case study” as a lead, not as proof. The only records that confirm present legal status are primary documents issued or maintained by a public authority. For a property company, the primary records are:

• 商号 (trade name) and 法人番号 (corporate number) on the present company register
• 登記簿 (land register) entries for each parcel
• 建築確認申請 (building confirmation application) records at the municipality
• Planning certificates (都市計画証明) issued by the local planning authority

The corporate number is the single most useful identifier because it is permanent, unlike a trading name, which can be changed or abandoned. The number is issued by the National Tax Agency and can be searched through the national company register (法人登記情報). A company may trade under a name that differs from its registered 商号, so you should always search by the 法人番号 and the registered 商号, not by the trading name on a website or an archived PDF.

The authoritative company record

When you receive a company name from a website, an archived consultancy note, or a business card, the first step is to locate the company’s registered 商号 (trade name) and 法人番号 (corporate number). A website or a brochure is a marketing document; it is not a legal record. The corporate number is issued once by the National Tax Agency and remains the same even if the company changes its name, address, or representative. If the company is a real-estate agent, the registration number under the Building Lots and Buildings Transaction Business Act is issued by the prefectural government, not by MLIT. Do not assume a company is licensed merely because it has a corporate number.

The authoritative company record is the commercial registry (登記簿) held by the Legal Affairs Bureau (法務局) in the company’s registered jurisdiction. Since 2015, Japan has operated the 法人番号 system; you can search the company’s name, corporate number, and registration history at the National Tax Agency’s corporate registration portal (国税庁法人番号公表サイト) and the Ministry of Justice’s online registry service (登記・供託オンライン申請システム). The corporate number is a13-digit identifier assigned once and never reused. If you find a company name in an archived document, do not treat the name as current: the trading name may have changed, the company may have been dissolved, or a successor entity may have taken over the business. The registered name at the Legal Affairs Bureau is the primary identifier; the 商号 on a website or archived PDF is only a label.

How to check the official registry

The company’s registration record is the primary source of its present legal name, address, and status. In Japan, the company registry (登記簿) is maintained by the Legal Affairs Bureau (法務局) for each jurisdiction. Since 2015, Japan has used a 法人番号 system; every registered company has a unique13-digit identifier. You can search the 法人番号 via the National Tax Agency’s free 法人番号公表サイト (Corporate Number Publication Site) at www.houjin-bangou.nta.go.j. The site returns the company’s registered 商号 (trade name), 本店所在地 (head office location), and 法人番号 (corporate number). This is the first check, not the last: the number is a unique identifier, but the record is only as current as the last filing.

After confirming the identifier, order a present 登記事項証明書 (certificate of registered matters) from the Legal Affairs Bureau that has jurisdiction over the company’s head-ofice location. The certificate shows the company’s registered name, address, representative, capital, purpose, and the date of each registration event. A 履歴事項全部証明書 (complete historical certificate) shows the full history of name changes, head-ofice moves, and capital changes. Do not rely on an archived consultancy claim, a scanned brochure, or a third-pary directory entry as proof that a trading name is current. The only authoritative name and status record is the registration at the Legal Affairs Bureau, not the company’s own website or a commercial database.