Japan Company Name Registration (商号) Requirements for 2026: Rules, Prohibitions, and Dual-Language Names
Choosing the wrong name before filing your 定款 can delay incorporation by weeks and trigger costly re-filings. Here is what the registry actually requires.
Last Updated: May 2026 · Reading Time: ~9 min
Why Your Company Name Is More Than a Branding Decision
The 商号 (shogo, trade name/company name) you register in Japan is the legal identity your entity carries across every material touchpoint: import declarations, banking applications, contracts with Japanese counterparties, and the national corporate registry. A poorly chosen name creates downstream friction at each of these.
When you apply to open a corporate bank account, the bank's KYC team matches the legal name on your registry extract against the beneficial ownership forms you submit. Mismatches, even stylistic ones, create delays. When your goods enter Japan, the customs declaration must name the importer of record precisely as it appears on the registry. And when you present your company to a domestic counterparty, certain name choices signal a lack of seriousness regardless of the underlying business substance. Getting the name right at incorporation costs nothing; changing it afterward costs real money and requires a shareholders' resolution.
The Legal Framework: 会社法 and the Commercial Registry
Company name rules in Japan flow from the 会社法 (Companies Act), which governs the formation, operation, and dissolution of 株式会社 (kabushiki kaisha, KK) and 合同会社 (godo kaisha, GK) entities. The procedural mechanics of registering that name, filing it with the court-administered registry, and the format requirements for the registration application are governed by the 商業登記法 (Commercial Registration Act), which sits alongside 会社法 as the principal procedural statute for corporate registry filings.
The 法務局 (homukyoku, Legal Affairs Bureau) is the competent registry authority. Corporate registration in Japan is administered through the 法務局's branch offices, with the relevant branch being the one that has jurisdiction over your intended 所在地 (shozaichi, registered address). The registry is national and publicly searchable, which is the basis for the name conflict rules discussed below.
Permitted Characters: What Can Actually Appear in Your Name
Japanese corporate names are not free-form strings. The 会社法 and registry practice specify exactly which character sets are permitted. The accepted character sets are:
(a) 漢字 (kanji), including 常用漢字 (joyo kanji, commonly used kanji) as listed in the official government table, plus certain additional kanji historically used in proper names;
(b) ひらがな (hiragana), the cursive phonetic syllabary;
(c) カタカナ (katakana), the angular phonetic syllabary, commonly used to render foreign brand names and loanwords;
(d) Latin alphabet (A-Z, upper and lower case), which is the mechanism by which most foreign companies embed their original brand name directly into the Japanese corporate name;
(e) Arabic numerals (0-9), which may be used but not as the sole element; and
(f) Certain symbols, specifically the ampersand (&), apostrophe ('), comma (,), hyphen (-), full stop (.), and the middle dot (・). The full stop and middle dot function as word separators in practice.
Characters that are not on this list cannot appear in your registered name. This includes all other special characters, brackets, trademark symbols (TM, (R)), and most punctuation. If your brand name relies on a character outside this set, it will need to be adapted before registration.
The Required Entity Suffix: No Flexibility on This Point
Every KK must include the characters 株式会社 as part of its registered name. The characters must appear either as a prefix or as a suffix. You may register as 株式会社 [Name] or [Name] 株式会社. Both placements are valid. The same structural rule applies to 合同会社 (godo kaisha, GK): the characters 合同会社 must appear in the name either before or after the distinctive element.
There is no way to register a Japan entity without the entity-type characters. If your global brand trades under a name like "Acme International," the registered entity will appear as "Acme International株式会社" or "株式会社Acme International." This is not an informal convention. It is a hard legal requirement under 会社法.
When choosing prefix versus suffix placement, the commercial convention in Japan favors suffix for most businesses, with prefix placement being more common among domestic entities. Foreign-owned companies inserting a Latin-alphabet brand name often prefer suffix placement because it reads more naturally: "GlobalTech株式会社" as opposed to "株式会社GlobalTech." Either is fully valid, and the choice is yours.
Prohibited Terms: Banks, Insurance, and Regulated Labels
Certain words are reserved by sector-specific regulation and cannot be used by non-licensed entities:
(a) 銀行 (ginko, bank): use is restricted to licensed banks under the 銀行法 (Banking Act). A general trading company or holding structure may not include 銀行 in its name.
(b) 保険 (hoken, insurance): restricted to licensed insurers under the 保険業法 (Insurance Business Act). This restriction extends to combinations like 損害保険 (non-life insurance) and 生命保険 (life insurance).
(c) 信託 (shintaku, trust): use in a company name can signal trust business activity regulated under the 信託業法 (Trust Business Act), which requires a separate FSA licence. Foreign structuring advisory firms should be particularly cautious here.
(d) 証券 (shoken, securities): proximity to regulated securities activity under the 金融商品取引法 (Financial Instruments and Exchange Act) triggers licensing analysis.
Beyond these sector-specific prohibitions, you may not use any term that falsely implies a public or governmental character. Names incorporating terms that in Japanese suggest government affiliation, official certification, or public authority are rejected by the registry.
The "Same Name at Same Address" Rule: What the Registry Actually Checks
This is the point most commonly misunderstood by foreign applicants. The Japanese corporate registry does not enforce nationwide name uniqueness. Two companies in different cities can legally register identical names. The prohibition that exists under 会社法 is narrower: you may not register a name that is identical to that of an existing company at the same registered address.
The practical implication: if your intended name is "Tokyo Digital Partners株式会社" and no other entity at your specific registered address uses that name, the registry will accept it even if a company with the same name exists in Fukuoka. This is fundamentally different from, for example, US state-level corporate name exclusivity rules, which prohibit confusingly similar names statewide.
What this means in practice: the name conflict risk you face in Japan is primarily at your registered address. If you are using a shared virtual office or a registered address provider, other companies at that address could theoretically hold your intended name. Check this before filing.
Separate from registry rules, trademark law creates a parallel constraint. A 商標 (shohyo, trademark) registered in the relevant class under the 商標法 (Trademark Act) can block you from using a name commercially even if the registry accepts it. These are independent systems. Registry approval does not mean trademark clearance.
Name Availability Check: How to Search Before You File
Before committing to a name and drafting your 定款 (teikan, Articles of Incorporation), run availability checks through two channels:
(a) The 登記情報提供サービス (touki joho teikyou service, corporate registry information service): this is the official online portal that provides access to registered corporate information. You can search by company name to identify whether identical names exist at the same registered address or, if you wish to avoid similar names as a business matter, across the registry nationally.
(b) The J-Lis system (Japan Legal Information System): provides broader search functionality and is used by 司法書士 (shiho shoshi, judicial scriveners) and 弁護士 (bengoshi, attorneys) in professional practice to conduct name availability research.
In practice, a qualified 司法書士 handling your incorporation will run these searches as part of the 定款 drafting process. If you are scoping the name yourself in advance, the 登記情報提供サービス is publicly accessible and allows basic name searches without professional credentials.
One critical preparation step: confirm your name choice before notarization of the 定款. Once the 定款 is notarized by a 公証人 (koushonin, notary public), changing the company name requires the full amendment procedure described at the end of this article.
Dual-Language Names: Handling Your English Brand Alongside the Japanese Registry Entry
This is the most practically important question for foreign companies incorporating in Japan. The Japanese corporate registry records one registered name, and that name must comply with the character rules described above. There is no official "English name" field in the Japanese registry.
Foreign companies have two main approaches:
(a) Embed the Latin-alphabet brand directly into the Japanese name. This is the most common approach. "Acme Corporation" becomes "Acme Corporation株式会社" or "Acme Corp.株式会社." The Latin characters are a permitted character set. The name the registry records contains your brand identity as foreign characters alongside the required entity-type designation. On business cards, contracts, and official correspondence in Japan, the entity appears exactly as registered. There is no ambiguity.
(b) Create a separate Japanese-character phonetic rendering using katakana. "Acme" becomes "アクメ," "GlobalTech" becomes "グローバルテック." This approach results in a name that is more legible to Japanese speakers who read the phonetics but may not parse Latin characters easily. The tradeoff: if your global brand name has a distinct Latin presentation that you use in all markets, a katakana rendering diverges from your global brand identity. Many foreign-owned entities therefore choose option (a) and preserve the Latin form.
Both approaches are legally valid. The choice is primarily commercial: consider how your Japanese customers, bank relationship managers, and customs contacts will encounter the name, and which form creates less friction.
One hybrid approach: some companies register a name that combines katakana and Latin forms, such as "アクメ・コーポレーション株式会社" or "ACME JAPAN株式会社." Either is acceptable under the character rules, provided the full string meets the other requirements.
For the 外国会社 (gaikoku kaisha, foreign company) branch registration route (as distinct from incorporating a new entity), see Japan Foreign Company Registration, which covers the 外国会社登記 (gaikoku kaisha toki, foreign company registration) procedure and its name requirements separately.
Practical Considerations: Seals, Length, and Bank Legibility
Two practical constraints that the legal rules do not fully capture:
First, the corporate 実印 (jitsuin, registered seal): your company name must physically fit on the seal face, which is typically a 24mm or 18mm circle. Very long names, particularly those combining full Latin brand names with katakana and a multi-character entity suffix, can become illegible when engraved at seal scale. There is no legal character limit on the company name, but a 50-character string that wraps multiple times around a seal face is unworkable in practice. Aim for names that are functional at seal size.
Second, bank account applications: the bank's account-opening forms record the entity name exactly as it appears in the registry. If your name includes unusual formatting or a very long Latin string, errors in transcription during account opening can create discrepancies on payment documents. This is a minor risk but worth considering when you have a choice between a shorter and a longer name variant.
Changing Your Name After Incorporation
Name changes after incorporation are possible but involve a defined procedure and cost. The steps are:
(a) Pass a 株主総会 (kabunushi sokai, shareholders' meeting) special resolution approving the name change. For a KK, a special resolution requires a two-thirds supermajority of voting shares represented at a meeting where at least one-half of total voting shares are present, unless the 定款 provides a stricter threshold.
(b) Amend the 定款 to reflect the new name.
(c) File the 変更登記 (henko toki, change of registration) with the 法務局 within two weeks of the resolution date.
(d) Pay the 登録免許税 (toroku menkyo zei, registration license tax) for the name change registration. Verify the current amount with your 司法書士 before filing, as tax schedules can be amended.
Beyond the direct filing cost, a name change requires updating every document that references the prior name: bank account records, customs registrations, ongoing contracts, and any product or regulatory licenses held in the entity's name. The cumulative administrative burden is real. Choosing the right name before the 定款 is notarized is materially cheaper than correcting it afterward.
For related cost context across the full incorporation process, see Japan Company Formation Cost Guide.
How Aplash Can Help
Aplash supports foreign companies establishing a KK or GK in Japan through regulatory strategy and market entry advisory. On company name matters, that means reviewing your proposed name against the character rules and registry restrictions before your 定款 drafts are prepared, advising on dual-language structuring for the specific commercial context you face, and coordinating the 司法書士 engagement that handles the registry filing.
Name review is part of the incorporation scoping process, not a separate engagement. If you are at the stage of choosing your Japan entity name, the right moment to raise it is before the 定款 is finalized.
For the full incorporation process, see Japan Company Incorporation Guide. For the KK versus GK decision, which affects name format choices (entity suffix), see KK vs GK Guide. For cost planning, see Japan Company Formation Cost Guide.
This article is for informational purposes. It does not constitute legal advice. Company name rules are set by law and registry practice; verify current requirements with a qualified Japan-licensed legal scrivener (司法書士) or attorney (弁護士) before filing.