SMARTSTART JAPAN

About Us

All-in-One Support for Setting Up Your Business in Japan!

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Our Mission

We help international entrepreneurs launch and grow successful businesses in Japan — without getting trapped in the maze of paperwork, bad advice, and costly mistakes.

Why We Exist

Japan is a great place to build a business — but the system wasn’t designed for you. Too many entrepreneurs waste time, money, and energy working with vendors who don’t understand their needs, or worse, get stuck in avoidable legal and financial problems.

We created Smart Start Japan to change that.

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Our Goal is Simple:

  • Protect Founders

    Reduce the number of foreigners who get stuck with the wrong advice or bad vendors

  • Turn Ideas Into Reality

    Increase the number of successful foreign businesses in Japan by providing not just setup help, but the tools to thrive long-term.

  • Accessible Support

    You shouldn’t need to pay corporate-level fees to get reliable, bilingual help. We’re here so no founder has to figure it out alone.

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More Than Incorporation: Helping You Grow

We know starting a business is just the first step. That’s why we go beyond setup with free and paid resources to help you grow:

  • Free Sales Course

    Learn proven methods to sell in Japan

  • Free Investor eBook

    Find the right investors and pitch with confidence

  • Free Quarterly Founder Meetups

    Network, learn, and share with fellow entrepreneurs

  • Revenue Growth Peer Groups

    Join a small group of founders focused on scaling together

  • Digital Marketing Support

    Get expert help to grow your audience and sales in Japan

Free Resources

About Us

Founded in 2024, Smart Start Japan is dedicated to helping international entrepreneurs confidently build and launch businesses in Japan - without getting stuck in the bureaucracy.

The vision behind Smart Start Japan comes from two co-founders with complementary strengths:

Tyson Batino photo, Japan Incorporation expert
Co-Founder | USA

Tyson Batino

Tyson Batino is a 4x founder (all in Japan) who’s spent over a decade growing teams and businesses in Japan, saw firsthand through his own companies and his 70+ advisory clients how difficult and expensive it can be for foreigners to get started here. He felt that there needed to be a better option similar to how he disrupted the English language industry in Japan with One Coin English.

A Photo of TJ Yoon, Co-founder Smartstart Japan
Co-Founder | Japan

TJ Yoon

TJ is a rare operations expert who has personally handled setting up more than 50 full incorporations, 40 visa setups, and 20 banking accounts for foreign clients across Japan. Born in Japan, matured in Australia, bringing an awesome blend of Native Japanese and Native English abilities with a Western mindset that gets what foreign clients want.

Together, we created SmartStart Japan with a shared mission:

To make Japan a more accessible, transparent, and founder-friendly place for global entrepreneurs — whether you’re starting a SaaS in Tokyo or an agency in Fukuoka.
Company Name K.K. Deep Zone
Service Name Smart Start Japan
Business Consulting Company
Establishment 11th of January 2019
Capital 5,000,000 JPY
Chief Executive Officer Teh-Jin Yoon
Joint Venture Partner Tyson Batino
Contact TJ{@}smartstartjapan.com

Let’s Get Started Together

If you’re ready to build your business in Japan, and want a partner who knows the system inside and out,  we’re here for you.

Book Your Free 60-Minute Consultation!

Frequently Asked Questions

About Us

Three main reasons : We can do everything in-house thereby giving you lower costs, native English, and eliminate the risk of making a big mistake using a Japanese vendor who only understands one area,but not all areas of incorporation and setting up and getting settled as a foreign business owner.

Japanese incorporation experts only understand incorporation, but don't deeply understand the business manager visa, bank account, and other areas of setting up a business. For example, we help real-estate owners to use their homes to meet the 5 million business manager visa requirement, this is something that most Japanese experts won't know and we spend a lot of time finding loopholes and unique methods to aid our clients.

Agencies who cater to foreigners often outsource work and therefore, their costs are often 30 - 50% higher than ours since they have to cover their margins and management costs. Smart Start Japan is just a few smart people who know how to do a lot with less, so cut out the middleman and work directly with us.

We do everything in house. TJ has incorporated more than 30 businesses in Japan and has a lot of experience helping those from overseas with incorporation and business manager visas. The problem with working with Japanese vendors is that one person can only do one area and you have to work with a team of them. TJ is that special person who can do everything himself, so you have one person who understands all the different parts, which explains our 100% success rate for incorporation, bank account, and business manager visa.

Company Setup

Yes, we can! However, please note that you would not be able to apply for subsidies and loans. You can still apply for the business manager visa though. Have more questions, please reach out to us.

Yes, Japanese law requires that any business incorporated in Japan must have a registered physical address within the country. This can be a rented space, office address, or even your own home. We can also share some places that you could rent for an affordable price. For long-term visa holders, you can use a virtual office space. Using your home gets VERY complicated and you will need professional help from us to prevent you from the nightmare of fixing things.

The time it takes to incorporate a business can vary, but typically it takes about 1 - 2 weeks for a G.K and 2 - 4 weeks for a K.K as of 2025 depending on the jurisdiction and the complexity of your business structure and your response speed and clarity of your business idea and structure. You can expedite this process by having a notarized document of your name, address in your home country or for those living in Japan, having your seal registered at city hall and an original certificate ready to send to us.

Yes, that is a service that we provide for clients for an extra cost. Our plan is to  incorporate your business and then transfer the representative director title to you.

Costs can vary based on the type of incorporation, state or country of incorporation, and additional services required. We provide transparent pricing and cost-effective solutions for all types of businesses.

G.K costs around 60,000 yen for government fees + 10,000 yen for the stamp, and 40,000 yen in person filing fee (free with online submission - which we can do for you)

K.K costs around 200,000 yen for government fees + 10,000 yen for the stamp, and 40,000 yen in person filing fee + 50,000 for the notary).

Our fees are separate from these and we can make a stamp on your behalf.

Yes, we can. However, please note that we may have to charge an additional fee of 165,000 - 330,000 yen depending on your country to handle more complexity. We usually handle a special case once every 2 months.

Visa

We have a 100% success rate for the business manager visa, and can help you as well. We are applying for business manager visas each month, so we know what immigration wants. We also charge around 30,000 yen less than the standard market rate.

You will need 5 million yen capital, a private office, and we could possibly use your home office to meet the private office requirements of the government. We can also use your house to help meet capital requirements.

Yes, we can. However, depending on the city, we may pass you off to one of our partners who is an expert for that city. Please note the startup visa is not for standard businesses. Real estate, restaurants, export businesses, table top cards, are not tech businesses. The startup cities want exponential growth companies with tech.

It can take around 4 - 7 months, based on May 2025 data. We highly recommend getting the incorporation done as soon as possible because we can only apply for your visa after your company has been incorporated.

Yes, we can. However, if your partner is not a legal spouse, please reach out to us to discuss alternative methods to bring them over to Japan.

Additional Services

Yes, we can help you get a JFC loan and we have helped more than 20 companies get a loan.

Yes, we have helped companies get a recruiter, accommodation, restaurant license and more…

Yes, we have a 100% success rate for creating a bank account. We have helped many companies with creating a bank account in Japan.

Yes, we can do that and year-end tax adjustments for employee salaries.

Yes, we can file on your behalf after the incorporation process is done.

Yes, we can.

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SmartStart Japan is dedicated to helping international entrepreneurs confidently build and launch businesses in Japan.

Services

Revenue Growth

Resources

Book Your Free 60-Minute Consultation!