About Corporate Numbers

Overview of the Corporate Number System

The Corporate Number is a 13-digit number that registered companies or the like are designated.

There are no restrictions on the use of Corporate Numbers and they may be used openly by anyone.

Designation of the Corporate Number

The Corporate Number is designated to;

National government organs
Local public entities
Corporations which have been registered for incorporation under provisions of the Companies Act or other laws and regulations(corporations registered for incorporation)
Corporations other than the above 1-3 or associations or the like without juridical personality which are required to submit certain documents under the tax law
Corporations other than the above 1-4 or associations or the like without juridical personality which satisfy certain requirements such as submitting tax documents and notify the commissioner of the National Tax Agency

Publication of the Corporate Number

Basic 3 information is published on the Internet(Corporate Number Publication Site). However, regarding an association or the like without juridical personality, the publication of the Basic 3 information requires its representative or administrator's consent.

【Basic 3 information】

trade name or name of the association
address of head office or principal place of business
the Corporate Number

Notification of the Corporate Number

The notificaion of Corporate Number on which Basic 3 information is written is sent to the corporations by the Commissioner of the National Tax Agency after designation of the number.

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Designation of the Corporate Number

The Corporate Number is designated to: 1. Corporations which have been registered for incorporation under provisions of the Companies Act or other laws and regulations(corporations registered for incorporation); 2. National government organs; 3. Local public entities; and 4. Corporations other than those mentioned earlier(including foreign corporations) or associations or the like without juridical personality. The Commissioner of the National Tax Agency designates a Corporate Number without requiring any filing or the like in particular.

(Note) More specifically, organizations which are required to submit the following documents under the tax law.

Notification of Establishment/Relocation/Closure of a Salary-Paying Office (PDF/615KB)
Notification of Corporation Establishment (PDF/685KB)
Notification about Becoming Foreign Ordinary Corporation (PDF/511KB)
Notification of Commencement of Profit-making Business (PDF/515KB)
Notification of Taxable Enterprise Status for Consumption Tax
For base period (PDF/524KB) / For specified period (PDF/420KB)

Furthermore, corporations or associations or the like without juridical personality other than the above 1-4 that possess domestic head offices which are established through individual laws and ordinances, such as submission of documents like tax returns, statements, etc., to the district director of the tax office and the like based on laws on national tax, may still be designated Corporate Numbers by submitting the notifications below to the Commissioner of the National Tax Agency.

In addition, since only one Corporate Number is designated per corporation, it is not assigned to any branch offices (Corporate Numbers are neither designated to individual proprietors nor associations and the like defined by the Civil Act).

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Publication of the Corporate Number

Basic 3 information of organizations designated the Corporate Number is published in the National Tax Agency's Corporate Number Publication Site. However,regarding an association or the like without juridical personality,the information is published only with the consent of its representative or administrator.

Information to be made public is as below;

【Basic 3 information】

trade name or name of the association
address of head office or principal place of business
the Corporate Number

【Information other than basic 3 information】

change history information of the trade name or name of the association and address of head office or principal place

The National Tax Agency's Corporate Number Publication Site offers a few functions as below;

Kinds of function	Contents of function	Cases for using the Corporate Number
Search and Browse	the function of searching organizational information by putting the name,address,or the Corporate Number into this site	・the case that the organizations need to search their own corporate number or their clients' corporate numbers ・the case that the users need to search an organization's information by putting its Corporate Number into this site
Web－API	the function of gaining organizational information by sending some requests which are set the conditions such as the period during which users need to acquire information or the locations where the organizations' headquarters are located, and the like.These requests are sent from this site's users.	the case that users need to gain the organizational information automatically on their own systems
Download	the function of downloading the organizational information in CSV and XML formats	・the case that users need to gain the latest information of the organizations ・the case that users need to gain incremental data by day or in prefectual units

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Notification of the Corporate Number

We notify the organization its Corporate Number after designation of the Corporate Number.

The address where the notifications are sent and the estimated sending date are as below;

Category	The address where notifications are sent	The estimated sending date
Corporations which have been registered for incorporation by using the one-stop company incorporation service	On the one-stop company incorporation service	at 4 p.m. on a day that the registration is completed or at 11 a.m. on a next business day after the day that the registration is completed
Corporations which have been registered for incorporation without using the one-stop company incorporation service	the registered address of the head office or the principal place of business of registered corporations	two days after the day that the registration is completed
Corporations other than registered corporations or associations and the like without juridical personality that submit statements as prescribed in national tax laws	the address of the head office or the principal place of business as indicated in the notifications submitted to the tax office	about one month after submitting the notifications to the tax office
Corporations other than registered corporations or associations and the like without juridical personality that submit notifications to be designated a Corporate Number to the National Tax Agency	the address of the head office or the principal place of business as indicated in the notifications submitted to the National Tax Agency	about one week after the notifications reach the National Tax Agency

When you need to confirm matters to be stated in the Notification of the Corporate Number, you may refer to "About notification".

About notification

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English version of the Corporate Number Publication Site

While economic transactions are being internationalized, there are increasing opportunities to use corporation names and addresses in English. In order for Corporate Numbers to be used more widely, the English version of the Corporate Number Publication Site is opened, and trade names or names and the addresses of head offices or principal places of business in English are published upon requests from corporations.

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Utilization in International E-commerce, etc.

The National Tax Agency has obtained the internationally standardized "Issuing Agency Code".Combined with the "Issuing Agency Code", the Corporate Number will be the only international code.This allows the Corporate Number to be used for E-commerce transactions with foreign companies and logistics using electronic tags.