FAQ

The first consultation is free. We first hear an overview by phone or through the contact form, and then meet with you in person or over Zoom for about 30 minutes to one hour.

You can choose either in person (at our office in front of Ichigao Station) or online (Zoom). Either is fine for the first consultation, so please let us know whichever is more convenient for you.

If you have any documents that outline your matter, please bring them — for example, permits or licenses, articles of incorporation, financial statements, or a certified copy of the corporate register. You can still consult with us even if you do not have them on hand, and we will explain the necessary documents on the spot.

As a rule our hours are weekdays 9:00–17:00, but for ongoing matters of existing clients, or where there are particular circumstances, we may be able to make arrangements by prior consultation. Please raise this when you contact us.

After hearing the details of your matter, we provide a written quote before we begin. For some matters we receive an initial fee at commencement, with the balance settled on completion.

Normally the matter is completed within the quoted amount, but if additional work becomes necessary along the way, we explain this and the amount before starting, and proceed only after obtaining your consent.

No. Actual costs such as application fees, registration and license taxes, and the cost of obtaining certified copies are settled separately from our professional fee. We present them clearly separated in the written quote.

We work mainly within Kanagawa Prefecture, centered on Yokohama and Kawasaki, but for some matters we can also handle work in Tokyo and nationwide. By using online consultations, we can also take on requests from clients who are far away.

We work day to day with tax accountants, labor and social security attorneys (sharoshi), judicial scriveners (shiho-shoshi), attorneys at law, and registered SME management consultants. For issues that go beyond a Certified Administrative Procedures Legal Specialist’s scope of work, we sort them out together with these partners.

We will hear you out as far as we can. Depending on the content, however, there are cases we cannot take on, or where we introduce you to another specialist. Please start by letting us know an overview.

It varies with the nature of the work and how far your preparations have progressed. For a new construction business license application, a rough guide is one to two months from gathering documents to filing, and about 30 to 90 days until the license is granted. We provide the specific schedule when we begin.

We also handle ongoing procedures such as renewals, annual business reports, and adding business categories. You can choose either an advisory (komon) contract arrangement or a one-off (spot) arrangement.

Originals we receive are kept securely within our office. Anything that needs to be returned is returned when the matter is completed or at an interim stage. Where a copy of the original is sufficient, we submit a copy instead.

As soon as the possibility of a denial becomes apparent, we report it and consider the approach to corrections or re-application together with you. The treatment of our fee follows the terms of the quote agreed at commencement.

Certified Administrative Procedures Legal Specialists bear a statutory duty of confidentiality. We use the details of your consultation and the information in the documents entrusted to us only within the scope of carrying out the work, and we do not disclose them to outside parties.

If we publish a matter as a case study, we always obtain your consent in advance. We do not publish anything without consent. Even when we do publish, we anonymize it so that no company name or individual name can be identified.