General Cargo Transportation Business License
Green-plate (cargo transportation) licensing in Japan, from obtaining the license through ongoing compliance. We support the whole process — Transport Bureau filings, management-structure setup, and the April 2026 regulation on unlicensed carriers.
Overview
What we handle
A general cargo motor truck transportation license (the “green plate”) is required to transport goods for others, for a fee, as a business. We guide operators and new entrants — including construction-soil hauliers and dump-truck owners — through the whole path.
The eight licensing requirements
Assessing your business office, vehicle garage, rest and sleeping facilities, vehicles, transport-management structure, vehicle-maintenance structure, funding plan, and legal compliance before you commit to a property.
Application preparation and filing
Drafting the business plan, funding plan and management-structure documents, then filing with the competent Transport Bureau (Kanagawa and the wider Kanto region).
Transport & vehicle-maintenance managers
Setting up the transport manager (unko-kanri-sha) and vehicle-maintenance manager (seibi-kanri-sha), including qualification checks, concurrent-post limits, and roll-call design.
Officer legal examination
Preparing your full-time officer for the compliance examination (a pass requires 24 of 30 questions; up to two attempts are allowed).
Business-cooperative (kumiai) route
When a single company cannot meet the five-vehicle or funding requirements, forming a business cooperative (jigyo kyodo kumiai) of four or more SMEs to obtain a joint license.
April 2026 regulation response
Determining, based on your contracts and pricing, whether a license is required under the revised Cargo Motor Truck Transportation Business Act, which extends penalties to shippers who use unlicensed carriers.
Post-license compliance and guidance visits
Ongoing duties such as driver education, roll-call records, statutory logs, and support for the first on-site guidance visit after operations begin.
Key facts at a glance
- Minimum vehicles
- 5 or more
- Required funds (self-financed)
- ¥15M – ¥30M
- Registration & license tax
- ¥120,000
- Overall timeline
- Approx. 8–12 months
Per business office; the certificate of inspection must list the use as "cargo".
Held continuously from the filing date until the license is granted; proven twice by balance certificates.
Statutory; paid after the license is granted.
From preparation through to the start of operations.
Figures are guidance amounts that vary with vehicle procurement, location and staffing. The full Japanese page sets out the eight requirements, the five-phase flow, a cost table and FAQs in detail.
Full details are in Japanese
This page is an English summary. The detailed page — covering the eight licensing requirements, the application flow, cost breakdown, the business-cooperative option and a full FAQ — is written in Japanese. You are welcome to use a browser translation, or contact us directly for an English consultation on this matter.
Talk to us about green-plate licensing
We are glad to help even with a simple “do we need a license?” assessment. Share your contracts, vehicle documents and current operations, and we will map out the next step with you. The first consultation is free.