A Japanese company contacted you — is it real?
You have a name, an address and a bank account. You need someone who can read the corporate registry, check the trading history, and tell you plainly what they found.
Tokyo, Japan · Established 2006
Japan groundwork for companies outside Japan.
Verify a Japanese company. Find and approach the right distributor. Send someone to a trade show or a store for you. Hire a bilingual assistant by the month. Fixed prices, defined deliverables, done by a registered Japanese company.
20 years as a Japanese corporation Fixed prices from $290 No retainer required
Who this is for
You need something done in Japan. You don’t need a six-month consulting contract.
Most Japan market-entry firms start at ¥900,000 and expect a retainer. Most freelance marketplaces offer individuals with no company behind them. We built this desk for everything in between.
You want to sell in Japan but don’t know who buys.
You need a real list of importers, distributors and buyers for your category — approached in Japanese, by someone they will actually reply to.
Something needs to be seen in person.
A trade show, a shelf, a factory, a meeting. Sending us costs a fraction of sending you, and we can go next week.
You need Japanese hands, not a Japanese hire.
Email, scheduling, forms, phone calls, document handling — a few hours a week, without setting up an entity or a payroll.
You need facts, not a sales pitch.
Market size, who already competes, what the rules are. Written so you can put it in front of your board.
You’re considering a presence in Japan.
You need to know which permits, which ministries, how long and how much — mapped out before you engage lawyers and accountants.
Services
Six things you can hire us for, one at a time.
Every engagement has a written scope, a fixed price and a delivery date. You can buy one and never speak to us again — that is a legitimate way to use this desk.
01
Japanese Company Verification
Find out whether a Japanese company is what it claims to be, before you contract or pay.
- Corporate registry (tōkibo) extract, translated
- National Tax Agency corporate number check
- Capital, directors, founding date, stated business
- Trading footprint and public risk signals
- Optional: someone visits the registered address
from $290
See details →02
Buyer & Distributor Discovery
A real list of Japanese buyers for your product, contacted in Japanese, with meetings booked.
- Screening criteria agreed with you first
- Longlist of 30–50 companies with rationale
- Written approaches in Japanese by native speakers
- Telephone follow-up to the main switchboard
- Online meetings scheduled, interpreter present
from $690
See details →03
On-the-Ground Representation
We physically go where you cannot, and report back with evidence.
- Trade show attendance with booth-by-booth notes
- Retail store and shelf audits with photos
- Factory or office verification visits
- Attending your meeting with interpretation
- Business cards, brochures and samples forwarded
from $490
See details →04
Japan Desk — Bilingual Assistant
A monthly block of Japanese-speaking hands, staffed by our team, not by one freelancer.
- Japanese written by native speakers, never machine-translated
- Phone calls placed and received in Japanese
- Scheduling across time zones
- Forms, documents and data entry
- Covered when your assistant is away
from $490/mo
See details →05
Japan Market Research
Japanese-language sources, read and turned into something you can act on.
- Market size and direction with cited sources
- Who already competes and at what price
- Channel structure for your category
- Regulatory landscape overview
- Written for a board, not for a search engine
from $390
See details →06
Japan Entry Groundwork
The research and coordination around setting up in Japan — mapped before you spend on professionals.
- Which permits and licences apply to you
- Which ministry or agency governs each one
- Realistic timelines and cost ranges
- Office location and rent benchmarking
- Introductions to licensed professionals
from $890
See details →How it works
From your first message to a delivered file.
No discovery call is required before you get a price. If your request matches a tier, we confirm and start.
01
You tell us what you need
Use the form or email us. Include the company name, product, or question. You will get a reply within one Japanese business day (JST, Mon–Fri).
02
We confirm scope, price and date in writing
A short statement of work: what we will do, what you will receive, what it costs, and when. If your request needs something outside the published tiers, we say so and quote it before any work starts.
03
You pay, and we begin
Bank transfer, credit card or PayPal. Engagements up to $1,000 are paid in full up front; larger ones are split 50% on start and 50% on delivery. An NDA is available at no cost and we will sign yours.
04
We work in Japan while you sleep
Japan is 13–14 hours ahead of New York and 8–9 hours ahead of London. Work you request at the end of your day is often underway before your next one. Longer engagements get a weekly written status update.
05
You receive the deliverable — and one round of questions
Delivered as agreed, in English. Every factual claim is sourced, and we state plainly what we could not confirm. One round of follow-up questions is included at no extra cost.
Scope
What we do, and what we will not do.
Several activities in Japan are reserved by law for licensed professions. We stay firmly on our side of that line, and we would rather tell you now than after you have paid.
We do
- Research, verify and translate public and commercial information
- Identify, screen, approach and correspond with Japanese companies
- Attend places, meetings and events on your behalf
- Interpret and translate in both directions
- Map which permits, agencies and timelines apply to your situation
- Handle scheduling, documents, forms and follow-up as your assistant
- Introduce you to licensed lawyers, judicial scriveners, administrative scriveners and tax accountants
Introductions are made at no charge, to you or to them. We are paid only for the research, translation, interpretation and coordination work we actually perform.
We do not
- Register or incorporate a company for you, or prepare its registration filings
- Prepare or file visa, residence or licence applications with any government office
- Give legal advice, or review or draft your contracts
- Act as a real-estate broker or sign a lease on your behalf
- Represent you in any dispute or negotiation as your legal agent
- Take a commission or success fee on deals you close
- Investigate private individuals
Under Japanese law these activities are reserved for licensed professionals, and the restriction applies regardless of what a fee is called. Anyone who offers to do them for you as “consulting support” is taking a risk on your behalf.
Why this desk
A Japanese company, priced like a freelancer.
Onmitsu Inc. has operated in Tokyo since 2006, doing research, market analysis and business support for Japanese companies. This desk is new. The company behind it is not.
| Freelance marketplace | Market-entry consultancy | Onmitsu Japan Desk | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical entry price | $15–$150 | ¥900,000+ ($6,000+) | $290–$3,500 |
| Prices published | Yes | Rarely | Yes, all of them |
| Registered Japanese company | No | Yes | Yes, since 2006 |
| Single task, no retainer | Yes | No | Yes |
| Team behind the work | One person | Yes | Yes, with cover |
| Can act on-site in Japan | Sometimes | Yes | Yes, Tokyo office |
| Signs an NDA and a contract | Varies | Yes | Yes, at no cost |
To be straightforward with you: this English desk opened in 2026 and our track record to date is with Japanese clients. What we bring is twenty years of doing this work in Japan, in Japanese — not a list of foreign case studies we do not yet have.
Questions
Before you ask
Can I really buy just one thing?
Yes. Most of our English enquiries are a single verification or a single site visit. There is no obligation to continue, and no pressure to convert a one-off into a retainer.
How do I know you are a real company?
Our corporate number is 3010001126939. Search it in the national corporate registry and you will find our registered name, address and founding date. You can also request a certified copy of our commercial register extract, and we will send it.
What if the research finds nothing useful?
We tell you that, clearly, and we still deliver the report showing what was checked and why it came back empty. A verification that finds no red flags is a result. What we will not do is pad a report to justify the fee.
Which languages do you work in?
Japanese and English. All deliverables are written in English. Correspondence with Japanese companies is conducted in Japanese by native speakers.
How quickly can you start?
Research engagements usually start within two business days of payment. On-site visits depend on the date of the event or the availability of the location — trade shows should be booked around three weeks ahead.
Do you take a commission if I sign with a distributor you found?
No. We are paid for the work, not for the outcome. This keeps our recommendations honest — we have no financial reason to push you toward one partner over another.
Will you sign our NDA?
Yes, at no charge, before you share anything confidential. We can also provide ours if you prefer.
Why can’t you handle our company registration?
Japanese law reserves company registration filings for judicial scriveners, and applications to government offices for administrative scriveners. As of January 2026 the penalties extend to the company employing an unlicensed person, whatever the fee is called. We map the requirements and introduce you to licensed professionals — that we can do properly.
Start a request
Tell us what you need done in Japan.
You do not need a polished brief. A company name, a product, or a question is enough to get a scope and a price back.
Response time
Within one Japanese business day. Our hours are 09:00–18:00 JST, Monday to Friday — that is UTC+9, with no daylight saving.
Office
708 Altair Akihabara Bldg., 1-8-4 Kanda-Sakumacho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0025, Japan
Email
Phone
+81 3-6319-2800 — answered in Japanese first. Email is faster if you write in English.
Confidentiality
We will sign your NDA before you send anything sensitive. Just say so in the message and we will send it back the same day.