MK @ Legal Biz Leaf The Rules of Corporate Names/ Trade Names
定款（Articles of Incorporation）
第 １ 条（商号）当会社は、○○○○株式会社と称する。英文では、○○○○, Inc.と表示する。
Article 1（Corporate Name）The name of the Company shall be ○○○○ Kabushiki-Kaisha, and ○○○○, Inc. in English.
The determination of a corporate name is one of the most time-consuming phases of the incorporation process, since you want to give your company a good name that will make you feel connected to it. However, before you make a decision, there are several regulations that you need to consider regarding corporate names, such as the following.
Characters
As of March 2022, only following characters can be used to register a corporate name.
Characters Example
Hiragana あいうえお、、、
Katakana アイウエオ、、、
Kanji 漢字、、、
Alphabet A, B, C…/ a, b, c…
Arabic numerals 1, 2, 3...
Symbols
Only following symbols can be used to separate letters or words.
Symbols NG OK
& (Ampersand) AB&株式会社 A&B株式会社
‘ (apostrophe) ‘AB株式会社 AB’s株式会社
, (comma) AB,株式会社 A,B株式会社
– (hyphen) -AB株式会社 A-B株式会社
・(midpoint) AB・株式会社 A・B株式会社
. (period) .AB株式会社 A.B株式会社
Period can also be used
to indicate the abbreviation AB Ave.株式会社
” ” (Space) ア イ株式会社 A B株式会社
Space can only be used
to separate alphabetical words
*Symbols or letters other than above
such as ()【】、。I, II, III… cannot be used as a corporate name.
Ex.) NG: Apple Lemon (Japan)株式会社
To include a type of the company either before or after the corporate name.
For example, Kabushiki-Kaisha with the name of “Apple Lemon” must be either: Apple Lemon株式会社 or 株式会社Apple Lemon.
If you also want to have an English corporate name, then it is possible to state in the Articles of Incorporation as follows:
“The corporate name of the company shall be Apple Lemon株式会社 in Japanese, and Apple Lemon, Inc. in English.”
Bank, Trust, and Insurance
These words cannot be used for the companies outside of these industries.
Department(事業部/ 事業所) and Branch(支店/ 支社)
These words cannot be used for the corporate name. On the other hand, “affiliate (支部)” and “agencies (代理店)” may be used.
The Same corporate name at the same location
A corporate name cannot be registered when it is the same corporate name at the same head office location as that of another company.
If there is a company called Apple Lemon株式会社 (Corporate Name) located at its registered office in Room No.101, 1-1-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo.
Then, you CAN or CANNOT set up another company with the same corporate name if your company’s head office is located at:
✓ Room No. 102, 1-1-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo
× 1-1-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo (*it does not have a room number, but the address includes all room number existing at that address.)
A company in the middle of liquidation procedures: It is not possible to create a new company with the same corporate name in the same location as a dissolving company until their liquidation process is completed.
Furigana
As of March 12, 2008, furigana (pronunciation) of the corporate name must be registered with the Legal Affairs Bureau. Companies that were established prior to the effective date and have not registered their furigana, can include it in conjunction with their next application for registration (no registration tax will be charged for registration of furigana).
Conclusion(‘◇’)ゞ
The corporate name can be decided relatively freely as long as the regulations listed above are observed.
However, it is advisable to register a corporate name that is not similar to another company’s name since it may lead to some unexpected conflicts later on. Preliminary research to avoid duplicating other corporate names can be done through online research or through the National Tax Agency’s website (National Tax Agency Corporate Number Publication Site(NTA-CNPS)).
For your reference, the most famous example of a foreign company establishing a subsidiary company in Japan is:
Parent company’s name + “Japan”, “ジャパン” or “日本“.
E.g.) ABC Japan株式会社
MK@ 03/18/2022
