{"id":4622,"date":"2021-06-15T09:40:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T00:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/starting-your-own-business-in-kobe\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T11:34:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T02:34:06","slug":"starting-your-own-business-in-kobe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/starting-your-own-business-in-kobe\/","title":{"rendered":"Starting Your Own Business in Kobe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.investopedia.com\/insights\/worlds-top-economies\/\">3<sup>rd<\/sup> strongest economy in the world<\/a>, Japan is an excellent place to start up a business. There are over 3,000 foreign-owned businesses in Japan, but you need to get it right if you want to become an overseas entrepreneur. Here&#8217;s a short guide on what you need to know to start up a business in Kobe.<\/p>\n<h2>Make Sure You Have a Viable Business Idea<\/h2>\n<p>Before you start, it&#8217;s important to make sure that you have a sound business idea and that there is a market for your product or service. You can download business plan templates and look at sample business plans for different industries from a website such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bplans.com\/\">this one<\/a>. Successful businesses have been started up in many sectors. Some of the leading industries in Kobe are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>manufacturing<\/li>\n<li>medical care<\/li>\n<li>service sector<\/li>\n<li>tourism<\/li>\n<li>retail<\/li>\n<li>IT<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Meet the Visa Requirements<\/h2>\n<p>To start your own business, you will need to apply for a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.japanvisa.com\/visas\/japan-investor-visa\">Business Manager or Investor Visa<\/a> in Japan. If you are already in Japan on a different type of visa, you can apply for a change of purpose with the immigration authorities. To qualify for the Business Manager Visa, you will need to have:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>an office or premises located in Japan<\/li>\n<li>the capacity to employ at least two full-time employees with Japanese residence<\/li>\n<li>a business plan demonstrating how the business will operate successfully<\/li>\n<li>5,000,000 yen (around US$45,000) to invest. This can include investment in land or buildings<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Choose a Company Type<\/h2>\n<p>There are different types of company legal structures in Japan. The main ones for expat investors are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>representative office or branch office \u2013 for businesses just looking to set up a foreign presence in Japan without setting up as a separate legal entity<\/li>\n<li>stock company (<em>Kabushiki Kaisha<\/em>) \u2013 limited liability company with shareholders and board of directors<\/li>\n<li>limited company (<em>Godo Kaisha<\/em>) \u2013 standard limited liability company that one individual can run<\/li>\n<li>general partnership company (<em>Gomei Kaisha<\/em>) \u2013 all partners bear unlimited liability<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Establish a Location<\/h2>\n<p>You&#8217;ll need suitable premises or office space to qualify for a business visa in Kobe. There are <a href=\"https:\/\/kobe-investment.jp\/img-download\/pdf\/kobe_pamphlet2018_e.pdf\">many locations<\/a> within the city where you can look to establish your business. These include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Kobe Waterfront<\/li>\n<li>Port Island<\/li>\n<li>Kobe Airport Island<\/li>\n<li>Rokko Island<\/li>\n<li>Kobe Techno-Logistics Park<\/li>\n<li>Kobe Science Park<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You can use an English-speaking property agent such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.core8eight.com\/\">Core 8<\/a> to help you find business premises. Shared office spaces are also available in Kobe through <a href=\"https:\/\/plug078.com\/\">Plug078<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Other Key Considerations<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Paperwork requirements<\/strong> \u2013 if you&#8217;re starting a limited company, you&#8217;ll need to draw up Articles of Incorporation and order the corporate seal for official registration.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bank account <\/strong>\u2013 you&#8217;ll need a business bank account as a legal requirement if your business is a separate legal entity. Even if it&#8217;s not, it&#8217;s advisable to keep business and personal finances separate by opening a business account. The process for this can take 2-3 weeks.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Registering for tax and social security<\/strong> \u2013 corporate entities must pay corporation tax and a corporate resident tax, requiring notification at the appropriate tax office before starting operating. Similarly, you&#8217;ll need to register with a social insurance office for national health insurance and pension payments. If you need advice on this, you can search for financial advisers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yalwa.jp\/\">here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Employees<\/strong> \u2013 if you&#8217;re looking to employ others, the Japanese government runs a service called Hello Work that offers support around finding employees and guidelines that need to be followed. Information for Kobe can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/jsite.mhlw.go.jp\/hyogo-roudoukyoku\/riyousha_mokuteki_menu\/jigyounushi.html\">here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Business and Financial Support for New Businesses in Kobe<\/h2>\n<p>There is a range of incentives and subsidies available to anyone wanting to start a business in Kobe.\u00a0 These include tax discounts, employment, and investment subsidies, start-up subsidies, and help with business premises costs. More information can be found on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.global.kobe-investment.jp\/english\/support\/\">Kobe Global Investment<\/a> website. Support is also available for entrepreneurs through the <a href=\"http:\/\/kobe.globalstartupgw.com\/\">Kobe Global Startup Gateway<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>663highland [<a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/\">CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>], <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Kobe_city_hall.jpg\">via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the 3rd strongest economy in the world, Japan is an excellent place to start up a business. There are over 3,000 foreign-owned businesses in Japan, but you need to get it right if you want to become an overseas entrepreneur. Here&#8217;s a short guide on what you need to know to start up a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":4623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[165,59],"tags":[72,74],"class_list":["post-4622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kobe","category-life-in-japan","tag-hyogo-prefecture","tag-kobe-city"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4622"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50150,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4622\/revisions\/50150"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}