I still remember the metallic clack of the Shinkansen ticket gate the day I quit my salaryman gig—wallet light, brain buzzing, zero paperwork ready. Two weeks later I had a client, a deliverable, and no way to bill them. Don’t be 26-year-old me. The stack of “must-do” before you invoice is shorter than ever, thanks to new AI finance tools that file, format, and chase cash while you sleep. Below is the exact roadmap I give every Tokyo maker who DMs me at 2 a.m. asking “OK, I’ve got the idea—now what?”
Register Fast, Register Right
Japan or Oregon, the state web portal is equally ugly. Get it done anyway.
Pick a Name That Pays
- Check
.comand the Japanese.jpon the same screen—if either is gone, pivot. - Say it out loud in both languages; if your Japanese friends twist their tongues, kill it.
- Grab the Instagram handle immediately—clients will search you.
Choose a Structure Without the Headache
- Sole prop if you’re testing; zero registration fee in most prefectures.
- LLC for liability shield; costs ¥30 k–¥50 k but protects your vintage synth collection.
- C-corp only if you’re courting Sand Hill Road money—otherwise overkill.
EIN in 60 Seconds
The IRS site is dark-mode hostile, yet the EIN lands instantly. Screenshot it; you’ll paste it into Stripe, PayPal, and Invoice Gini later.
Separate Money Before It Mixes
“Keep business transactions on your business card and personal purchases elsewhere.”
Mercury’s blog is blunt for a reason: blended accounts trigger audits faster than a broken Suica gate.
Open Two Accounts on Day Zero
- Online banks like Mercury or PayPay Business open in 11 minutes—timer verified.
- Order the physical debit card; some Japanese clients still fax you forms demanding a card number.
Track Every Yen Automatically
Forget spreadsheets. Feed your new account into Invoice Gini; its AI tags revenue and expenses without CSV gymnastics. I imported six months of messy PayPal history in 42 seconds—no joke.
Build the Invoice Stack That Scales
Template? Dead. Use Natural Language.
Old way: open Word, align columns, curse at logos. New way: type “1 logo design, 2 revisions, ¥150 k, due NET15” into Invoice Gini and a PDF lands in Slack before your coffee drips.
Payment Rails That Respect Yen
- Stripe accepts JCB now—turn it on; Japanese clients love their Rakuten points.
- PayPal still hits you with 4.4 %; bake it into your quote or offer 3 % discount for bank transfer.
Auto-Chase Without Sounding Desperate
Invoice Gini pings polite reminders at 7, 14, 30 days. You stay kawaii; cash still arrives.
Soft-Launch Checklist (Print & Tick)
- Domain bought
- EIN secured
- Business bank open
- Invoice Gini account created & branded
- First test invoice sent to yourself (zero yen) to check PDF layout
- Client contract template uploaded to cloud
- Calendar reminder for quarterly tax filing
Tokyo Pro Tips I Learnt the Hard Way
- Register your sole prop at the local tax office before March; you get the blue-form deduction that first year.
- Add your Hanko stamp image to Invoice Gini’s PDF—old-school clients need the red circle.
- Set invoices in USD if the client is overseas; let the bank handle FX, not you.
- Back up everything to a second cloud—Japan’s typhoons don’t care about your SSD.
Ready to kill the admin dragon? Speak your first invoice into existence at Invoice Gini and get back to building the thing only you can build.
Source: From idea to invoice: What to set up before you launch a business