Why a Newly Established Foreign-Owned Company Struggles to Open a Bank Account in Japan — Screening Tendencies and How to Prepare

You have managed to set up the company at last — and yet the very thing you need, a corporate account (a bank account in the company’s name), simply won’t open. This is a very common stumbling block when a foreign company enters Japan. Abroad, plenty of countries fold opening a bank account into the incorporation process; in Japan, the two are entirely separate, and being able to set up a company does not mean a corporate account will open as a matter of course. For a newly established foreign-owned company or a foreign representative in particular, the screening bar tends to be high enough to make you want to search “foreign national corporate account opening difficult.” Without an account, you cannot move the capital sent from abroad as the company’s money, you cannot begin payments to or receipts from business partners, and the launch itself stalls. In this article, we first explain honestly why opening a bank account for a foreign company or foreign national tends to be difficult in Japan, and then — from the perspective of an administrative scrivener specializing in international work — set out what banks are looking at and how to prepare to raise your chances. Note that whether an account opens is ultimately the decision of each financial institution; neither this article nor our firm guarantees that it will open.

Note: The content is current as of July 2026. For the latest, please check official sources and each financial institution, and consult a professional.

1. “We Set Up the Company, So the Account Can Open” Does Not Hold — the AML/CFT Behind It

First, let us clear up the biggest misconception. In Japan, being able to set up a company (a legal entity) and being able to open a bank account (a corporate account) for that company are two different things. Even after registration is complete and the company legally exists, a financial institution may not agree to open an account. A newly established company has no track record yet, so from a bank’s viewpoint “what business does this company actually do” is hard to confirm, and the screening bar tends to rise.

What is more, in recent years, even a newly established company with a Japanese representative finds opening a corporate account less easy than before, and for a foreign representative or the Japanese subsidiary of a foreign company, that tendency is said to be even stronger. This is not a matter of certain banks disliking foreign nationals. Behind it is the strengthening of anti-money-laundering / countering-the-financing-of-terrorism (AML/CFT) measures and compliance that each financial institution is advancing under the policy of the Financial Services Agency. Roughly from around 2020, to prevent accounts being misused for crime, financial institutions have tightened their checks at account opening a further notch. Elements such as being newly established, foreign, a non-resident, or having a place of business whose substance is hard to see take banks time and effort to verify, and the result tends to be cautious screening. It is not unfair treatment aimed squarely at foreign companies; it is best understood as part of a society-wide effort to prevent wrongdoing.

2. What Banks Are Looking At — the Core Is “Is There Business Substance?”

Each financial institution runs its own screening criteria, and the details are not published. So no one can point to a definite pass line, but from accumulated practice, the tendencies banks commonly care about can be laid out. At bottom, what a bank weighs most is a single point: “is this company really doing business (is there business substance)?” Here are the main points likely to be examined in screening.

On top of these, it is said that whether you can communicate in Japanese, and whether there is a trustworthy Japanese staff member or professional at the point of contact, can also affect the impression in screening. What runs through it all is that the bank is trying to confirm not “the form of the documents” but “that the business really exists and there is nothing unnatural about the flow of money.”

3. Tendencies by Type of Bank — Where to Inquire

Which financial institution you approach also changes the feel of how likely you are to get through. The following is only a broad-brush impression; even at the same bank, the response varies greatly by branch, timing, person in charge, and the company’s situation, and it is not a matter of “this bank will definitely open / not open” one.

The time screening takes also varies by bank: from application to result is often around 2–3 weeks, and if additional documents are requested, another two weeks or so can be added on. A newly established company’s account is not something you can “open right away just by applying”; treat it as one of the critical-path (rate-limiting) steps that govern your launch schedule, and it is safest to start moving early.

4. The “Chicken and Egg” — the Correct Order of Capital Payment and the Corporate Account

What most easily throws off the schedule around a foreign company’s account is the “chicken and egg” relationship, so to speak, between the “payment” of capital and the “corporate account.” Let us lay it out step by step.

First, a corporate account in the company’s name cannot be opened until registration is complete and the company exists. Yet in the incorporation process, you must pay in the capital before registration and prove that the payment was made. Because the company’s account does not yet exist, this payment is made into the Japanese bank account of the individual who invests and sets up the company (in a kabushiki-kaisha, the incorporator; in a godo-kaisha, the member who invests — in many cases the representative themselves).

Here the next wall appears. For a foreign national newly arrived in Japan, opening this “incorporator’s personal Japanese account” is itself no simple matter. In general, opening a personal account tends to be premised on things like having a period of stay of six months or more, having completed residence registration, and holding a Residence Card; at an early stage of a short stay, sometimes only a non-resident account with restrictions on remittance and the like can be opened. As for a personal account at the just-arrived stage, some say Japan Post Bank or certain online banks are relatively easier to approach; but in recent years every bank has tightened its checks, and the response varies with the time elapsed since residence registration and with the status of residence.

For that reason, incorporation by a foreign company or foreign national tends, in reality, to follow the order below.

In other words, the account problem begins not only with “can we open a corporate account” but one step earlier, with “can we open a personal account and complete the payment.” Where, on the premise of the Business Manager status of residence, you remit capital of JPY 30 million from overseas, the remittance route and procedures under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act (the Forex Act) — mostly after-the-fact reporting — also come into play, so, including the timing of the representative’s arrival and residence registration, still earlier sequencing is required.

Note that the order above assumes the case where the person comes to Japan and makes the payment through their own personal account (the person-first type). If you proceed with the person still outside Japan, there is also a form in which the account of a cooperator who has an address and a status of residence in Japan (such as a director at incorporation) serves as the recipient of the payment (the cooperator type).

Here, note that the following two are separate axes. Axis ① = who is the investor / shareholder — the person as an individual, or the ODI (outbound direct investment) of a home-country company that the person controls. Axis ② = whose account receives the payment (whether the person comes to Japan) — an account in the person’s name, or a cooperator’s account. These two are independent, and can be combined — for example, [shareholder = home-country company (ODI) + payment = cooperator’s account]. Decide the subject of the investment (axis ①) and the party handling the payment (axis ②) separately at the outset, and the remittance route and account-opening sequence will not waver. How to obtain the status of residence (person-first or cooperator type) is explained in the “Business Manager visa” article.

5. Bringing the Capital “Into” Japan — Your Home Country’s Foreign-Exchange Controls and Points on Remittance vs. Carrying Cash

On top of the order of payment and corporate account seen in the previous section, an often-overlooked difficulty in a foreign company’s entry is getting the capital itself “into” Japan in the first place. The capital required for the Business Manager status of residence is a large JPY 30 million, and there are unexpected walls between taking these funds legally out of your home country and having them land in a Japanese account. The problem is easier to sort out if you split it into “the side that takes it out of the home country” and “the side that brings it into Japan.”

The “Taking Out” Side — Controls Vary Greatly by Country

How funds can be taken out varies greatly with your home country’s foreign-exchange controls. Taking China, about which we are often consulted, as an example: the annual USD 50,000 exchange quota available to an individual is for current-account transactions such as study abroad, travel, and medical care, and cannot be used for overseas investment (investing in a company). China currently does not have an open foreign-exchange route for outbound direct investment by individuals, so for an individual to remit capital of the JPY 30 million scale directly is, as a system, extremely difficult. The realistic legal routes are mainly one of two: (1) using funds already overseas (deposits in an overseas account, income earned overseas, and so on); or (2) making ODI (a filing for outbound direct investment) through a home-country company that the person controls, where (2) requires a procedure period of several months. Note that for an individual with neither a home-country company nor overseas funds, the means to legally take out large funds are limited.

For countries other than China, too, whether there are foreign-exchange controls and the remittance ceilings differ country by country. What can be said in common is that, whichever country you remit from, moving a large sum calls for AML checks and proof of the source of funds on both the home-country and the Japanese side. How to take funds out is a matter of your home country’s laws, so please confirm early with a professional in your home country as well.

The “Bringing In” Side — the Points Differ for Remittance and Carrying Cash

There are broadly two ways to bring capital into Japan — overseas remittance and carrying cash — but the points to watch differ for each.

What is common to either method is that proof of the source of funds (that the funds are genuinely the person’s, and how they were prepared) is required. Both Immigration and the bank are wary of temporary “show money” or funds of unknown origin. If you cannot explain the source, then even with the other documents in order, you can be at a disadvantage on both the status of residence and the account opening.

6. The Main Documents Required to Open a Corporate Account, and Visiting in Person / Interviews

The substance of screening differs by bank, but the documents to gather at application and how to proceed with it broadly follow a common pattern. A newly established, foreign-owned company tends to be asked in particular for a thicker set of materials showing “business substance,” so preparing early is reassuring. Here are the representative documents (what is ultimately required is at each financial institution’s discretion).

Beyond these, some banks also ask for tax-related documents or confirmation of the outlook for overseas remittance (foreign-exchange transactions). As noted, what the bank wants to confirm is not “the form of the documents” but “that the business really exists and there is nothing unnatural about the flow of money.” Think of the documents as prepared to back up that substance clearly, and it becomes easier to judge whether you have too much or too little.

Whether You Visit in Person / Have an Interview

Most banks require the representative to visit in person to open a corporate account. Beyond checking documents at the counter, a short interview (hearing) about the substance of the business, the circumstances of incorporation, and the flow of money is sometimes held on the spot. If you are uneasy about communicating in Japanese, having a setup in place where a Japanese-speaking staff member or professional can attend makes communication smoother and can have a positive effect on the impression. There are also cases, as with online banks, where the procedure is completed largely online, but even then identity and substance verification through documents is carried out.

7. Six Preparations That Raise Your Chances

Whether an account opens is ultimately the bank’s decision, but with the right preparation you can raise your chances. Here are the preparations that tend to be effective in practice, gathered into a six-point checklist.

① Secure an independent place of business with real substance. A virtual office, a rented meeting room, or a shared office makes the substance of the place of business hard to confirm and tends to be a disadvantage in screening. This also links to the “independent place of business” requirement of the Business Manager status of residence, and the choice of address is the “first fork in the road” that bears on registration, the visa, and the account alike.

② Prepare materials that can explain the business plan, the commercial flow, and the source of funds. Make “from whom you buy, to whom you sell, and how money moves” and “where the capital came from” into materials that a person in charge can understand in a short time. Contracts and quotations with business partners, and materials showing the relationship with the overseas head office, help explain the substance.

③ Prepare the required documents without omission. Gather the certificate of registered matters, the articles of incorporation, the various notifications, the seal certificate, the identity documents, and so on, according to each bank’s request. A shortage or inconsistency in documents can, on its own, cause screening to drag on or be shelved.

④ Apply while the representative has an address and an appropriate status of residence in Japan. As noted, remaining a non-resident almost never gets through. Complete arrival and residence registration, obtain a work-permitting status of residence such as Business Manager, and then apply.

⑤ Put in place a setup that can respond in Japanese. Communicating in Japanese, or having a trustworthy Japanese staff member or professional attend, makes communication with the bank smoother and can have a positive effect on the impression.

⑥ Don’t bet on a single megabank. Rather than staking everything on the strictest-screening megabank, put regional banks and shinkin banks suited to your business scale and region, as well as online banks, on your list of candidates, and consider approaching several financial institutions in parallel.

Every one of these comes down to a single point: “showing the business substance to the bank clearly.” Conversely, apply while the explanation of substance remains vague, and screening at any bank tends to turn cautious.

If it is shelved even so. Even if several banks shelve the account opening, there are moves you can make. Right after incorporation, the lack of track record and visible substance works against you, so making the place of business, the contracts with business partners, and the business outlook clearer, and applying again after some time, can change the assessment. If a home-country bank has a branch in Japan, approaching them by drawing on the existing relationship is another option. Note that payment-agency services and overseas-remittance services can be useful as a vehicle for receiving payments from business partners, but the payment of capital at incorporation requires a bank account in the incorporator’s (investor’s) own name, and these services cannot substitute for it (to handle the company’s money after incorporation, a separate corporate account in the company’s name is needed).

8. Design Account Opening Together With “Setup, Status of Residence, and Place of Business”

As we have seen, opening a corporate account is not something to consider on its own. How you choose the place of business (address), the representative’s status of residence, the sequencing of remitting and paying in capital from overseas, and how you put the business substance in order — all of these bear directly on how readily the account gets through. The more you design it together with company setup, the status of residence, and the place of business, the more readily the account gets through.

In Japan, the professionals who handle each procedure are separate. Registration for company setup is handled by a judicial scrivener, tax by a certified tax accountant, labor matters by a labor and social security attorney, and the status of residence (the visa) and licensing by an administrative scrivener. Opening a corporate account itself is something the bank screens and decides, and no professional, whoever they are, can guarantee that “it will definitely open.”