What It Takes to Get a Japanese Virtual Number

We added Japan to our virtual-number list on 10th July 2026, and the first question from users has been predictable: "What do I need to provide?" The honest answer is: more than for most other countries. Japan's telecom regulator does not hand out numbers casually, and neither do the carriers that provision them. If your business needs a Japanese inbound number, the process is thorough, paper-heavy, and strictly corporate-only.

I have spent two decades in the unglamorous parts of telephony, and provisioning Japanese numbers is one of the more bureaucratic exercises I have encountered. It is not difficult in the sense of being technically complex; it is difficult in the sense of being administratively exacting. Every document must be the right document, issued within the right window, sent through the right channel, and verified through the right method. This post walks through exactly what is required, why it exists, and how to avoid the mistakes that will get your application rejected.

Who Can Apply

First, before you even read this whole post, let me just go through the conditions of who can apply. If you do not meet any of these conditions, then stop reading at this section.

1. Japanese numbers are available only to corporate customers with a registered address in Japan.
2. A PO box, virtual office, or mail-forwarding service is not acceptable as a business address. The address must be a physical location in Japan where a non-forwarding verification mailer can be delivered. The same applies to the authorized representative's personal address: it must be a real residence, not a forwarding address or shared office.
3. Individual users, sole proprietors, and freelancers without an incorporated entity cannot apply. This is not our policy. It is written into Japanese telecom law, and the carriers that supply the numbers enforce it without exception.

Why Japan Is This Strict

Japan's telecom regulations are rooted in the Telecommunications Business Act, which places heavy obligations on anyone holding a Japanese phone number. The regulator, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), requires carriers to know exactly who is behind every number, where they are located, and what the number will be used for. This is why the documentation burden is higher than in, say, the United States or Estonia, where a company certificate and a passport scan are often enough.

The strictness is not arbitrary. Japan has historically tightly controlled its numbering resources to prevent misuse — spam calls, fraud, and unlicensed reselling are taken seriously. The result is a system where getting a number is slow, but once you have one, it is stable and trusted.

The Document Checklist

Before a Japanese number can be assigned, we submit a regulatory bundle to the underlying carrier. The bundle contains the following documents, all of which must be issued within the last six months and valid at the time of submission.

Corporate Documents

Document	What It Proves	Acceptable Form
Corporate registry certificate i.e. Tokibo (履歴事項全部証明書 or 現在事項全部証明書)	Legal existence of the company	Latest Tokibo from the Legal Affairs Bureau (法務局), issued within 6 months
Business address proof	The company operates at the stated address	If the Tokibo address matches the current operating address, the Tokibo itself suffices. If the company has moved or operates from a branch, a corporate tax payment certificate or a corporate utility bill issued within 6 months is required
Business purpose	The company's stated activities	The Tokibo, which lists the business purpose under 目的
Regulatory application form	Formal request for number assignment	The Japan Regulatory Bundle Application Form, which we provide. It must be completed, dated, and signed by an authorized representative

Authorized Representative Documents

The carrier requires a named individual who is authorized to act on behalf of the company. This person can be the representative listed on the corporate registry (代表者), or someone else holding a valid power of attorney.

Document	What It Proves	Acceptable Form
Proof of authorization	The person applying has authority to represent the company	Corporate registry showing the representative's name, OR a signed power of attorney (委任状), OR a signed company letterhead with seal confirming signing authority
Proof of identity	The representative is who they claim to be	Driver's license (both sides), Certificate of Driving Record (運転経歴証明書), My Number Card (front only), Residence Card (在留カード), or Special Permanent Resident Certificate (特別永住者証明書)
Proof of address	The representative's current residential address	Personal tax payment certificate (納税証明書) or personal utility bill (公共料金の請求書・領収書), issued within 6 months. Bank statements and credit-card bills are not accepted

The Application Form

The Japan Regulatory Bundle Application Form is the centrepiece of the submission. It is a multi-page document issued by the carrier, and we provide it to you after you email [email protected] with your request. You fill it out, sign it, and send it back to us. We then submit it, together with the rest of your documents, to the carrier on your behalf.

The form is divided into five parts. Here is what each part covers:

Part 1 — Customer Information. The legal company name, the representative's name, and whether the company is publicly listed. If it is listed, you must provide the stock exchange and ticker symbol.

Part 2 — Use Case. A checklist describing how the number will be used. Options include business line, call centre or IVR, or telecommunications business. You select the one that applies. This tells the carrier what kind of traffic to expect.

Part 3 — Beneficial Owner Declaration (実質的支配者). If the company is not publicly listed, you must declare who the beneficial owners are. A beneficial owner is anyone who holds more than 25% of voting rights or profits, or who otherwise exercises controlling influence over the business. For each beneficial owner, you provide name, date of birth, and address. If your company has no beneficial owner other than the representative director, the representative director is treated as the beneficial owner and you check the "representative director" box.

Part 4 — High-Risk Transaction Applicability. Three mandatory declarations: that all information is true and accurate, that neither you nor the company is resident in Iran or North Korea, and that no one involved is a politically exposed person (head of state, prime minister, chief justice, or their family members). If any of these boxes cannot be checked, the application will likely be rejected or subject to further investigation.

Part 5 — Certification. A sworn statement that everything in the form is true and accurate, followed by the company name (as it appears on the Tokibo), the representative's name, title, date, and signature.

Acceptable signatures on the form include:

• Printed name plus company seal (社印のみ — seal alone — is not enough)
• Handwritten signature in ink

The completed form, like all other documents, must be sent to us via email.

Where to Get Each Document

Corporate Registry Certificate (Tokibo)

Request this from the Legal Affairs Bureau (法務局) that has jurisdiction over your company's registered address. You can apply in person, by mail, or through some online services. The standard request is for the 履歴事項全部証明書 (full historical record) or the 現在事項全部証明書 (current status certificate). Either is acceptable. The certificate costs a few hundred yen and is usually issued on the spot if requested in person.

Critical: Check the issue date. If your Tokibo was issued seven months ago, you need a fresh one. The carrier rejects anything older than six months at the time of submission.

Corporate Address Proof

If your current operating address is the same as the one on the Tokibo, you are done — the Tokibo covers this. If you have moved, set up a branch office, or operate from a different location, you need one of:

• A corporate tax payment certificate from the tax office
• A corporate utility bill (electricity, gas, water, fixed-line phone) in the company name

The bill must show the company's full name and the address. Partial address listings are rejected.

Personal ID for the Representative

The most common choice is a Japanese driver's license. We will need both the front and back sides as a single scan or photograph. Make sure the image is clear, well-lit, and all text is legible. Blurred or low-resolution images are a common reason for rejection.

If using a My Number Card (マイナンバーカード), we only need the front side.

Personal Address Proof

A utility bill or tax payment certificate in the representative's name, showing the full residential address, is required. Mobile phone bills are acceptable only if they show the complete address (not just the city or ward). Web-provided receipts from carriers are acceptable if the full address is printed.

Again, bank passbook records and credit card statements are explicitly not accepted, even if they show an address.

Physical Address Verification: The Step Everyone Forgets

Here is the step that surprises most applicants: after the documents are reviewed and accepted, us, or the carrier supplying the number will send a non-forwarding physical mailer to both the company address and the representative's personal address. Your application will stay "In-Review" until that mail is received and confirmed. Only then is the bundle approved and we can assign a number to you.

This means the timeline is not purely digital. Even with perfect paperwork, you are waiting for postal delivery to two separate addresses in Japan. The mailer cannot be forwarded, so someone must be present at the address to receive it, or the mailbox must be accessible.

In practice, this adds a few days to the process. If the representative lives in a building with a locked mailbox system or a reception desk that holds mail, make sure someone is checking for the verification letter.

Common Reasons for Rejection

We have not processed enough Japanese applications to build a large statistical sample, but the carrier documentation is clear about what gets rejected:

• Documents older than six months. The cutoff is strict. A Tokibo issued five months and thirty days ago is acceptable; one issued six months and one day ago is not.
• Blurred or cropped scans. If the issuing authority's seal, the registration number, or the address is not clearly legible, the document is rejected.
• Wrong document type. A bank statement used as address proof, or the back side of a My Number Card as ID, will be rejected outright.
• Mismatch between addresses. If the representative's address on the application form does not match the address on the submitted utility bill, the bundle is questioned.
• Missing the Japan Regulatory Bundle Application Form. Forgetting to send the completed Application Form is the most common reason applications stall.
• Incomplete beneficial owner declaration. Leaving Part 3 blank when the company is not publicly listed will cause the carrier to return the form.

Timeline and Cost

Including document preparation, submission review, and postal verification, the whole process typically takes around 7 business days once we have received a complete bundle. If documents are rejected and need to be re-submitted, the clock resets.

You can refer to the pricing of acquiring Japanese numbers on our full guide on country pricing, KYC steps & setup page.

What We Do With Your Documents

We review and submit these documents only to satisfy the carrier's regulatory requirements. We do not use them to build a profile, and we handle them in line with our privacy policy and EU data-protection law. Your account itself still requires nothing but a verified email address to open.

The documents are transmitted to the carrier over encrypted channels and stored in line with GDPR requirements. We do not share them with third parties beyond what is necessary for provisioning the number.

How This Compares to Other Countries

For context, most countries in our virtual-number program require far less. In Estonia, the business registry extract is enough. In UK, the business registry and a public facing website is needed. Japan sits at the far end of the documentation spectrum, alongside a small handful of other Asian markets where telecom regulation is similarly tight, such as Malaysia.

The trade-off is stability. Once a Japanese number is provisioned and the bundle is approved, the number is tied to a verified, regulated entity. That makes it less likely to be suspended, reclaimed, or flagged by downstream carriers.

Ready to Apply?

If your incorporated business has a physical address in Japan and you need a local, national, or toll-free number, create your account and email us at [email protected] from your company-domain address.

We will send you the application form, review your document list, and guide you through the rest. Expect about 7 business days from complete submission to a live number, assuming the postal verification step goes smoothly.