Corpus is built only on documents Japanese companies are legally required to file. If you are new to the Japanese disclosure system, these are the terms that matter.
The report listed companies must file once a year with Japan's Financial Services Agency. It carries not just financials but average annual pay, average age, average tenure, director remuneration, major shareholders and the gender pay gap. Filing a false statement is a criminal offence — which is why these figures are worth building on, unlike self-reported recruiting pages.
The average for the filing entity, usually the parent company on a non-consolidated basis. Subsidiary employees are excluded, so a holding company with 40 staff at the top can look far richer than the group it runs. It includes bonuses and overtime.
Filed whenever something material happens, rather than once a year: a change in major shareholders or the parent, a merger, a disaster, litigation, a change of CEO or auditor. This is the fastest legally mandated signal about a Japanese listed company.
A note the company itself must add when there is material doubt about its ability to continue operating. It is not a bankruptcy prediction — some companies recover and the note is removed — but it is the company admitting the problem in a document that carries criminal liability.
Anyone crossing 5% of a listed company's shares must file within five business days, and file again on material changes. This is how activist stakes and cross-shareholding unwinds become visible before the annual report.
A public offer to buy shares outside the market, used for acquisitions and take-privates. Both the launch and the result are filed.
A 13-digit number the National Tax Agency assigns to every corporation in Japan. It never changes, even if the company renames or relocates, and the full register is public. It is the reliable key for joining Japanese corporate datasets.
Since 2023, claiming Japanese consumption tax credit generally requires an invoice from a registered issuer. Registered businesses get a number of T + their 13-digit Corporate Number. Registration can be revoked or lapse, so a printed number is not proof it is still valid today.
If a Japanese joint-stock company files no registration for 12 years, the Legal Affairs Bureau dissolves it on its own authority after a public notice. Most are genuinely dormant, but some are trading companies that simply forgot to register a director change.
Sources: EDINET (Financial Services Agency of Japan), National Tax Agency Corporate Number and Qualified Invoice Issuer registers. The Japanese edition has a fuller glossary: 用語集.