SEISEI INSIGHTS
Insights
Perspectives on financial architecture, cross-border taxation, and succession
M&A
Not "Is It Expensive?" but "Is It Worth It?": How a Japanese Acquisition Is Priced
From those weighing the acquisition of a Japanese company, we hear one question again and again: "Is this expensive?" But the real starting point is a different…
Read more →Cross-border Compliance
The Shell-Company Trap: Anchoring Residency in a Real Business
"Set up a company and you get a residence status." From those weighing business and residence in Japan, we hear this constantly. Incorporating, funding the capi…
Read more →Cross-border Compliance
The Pre-Migration Tax Checkup: Before You Move Your Tax Position
When someone tells us "I'm relocating abroad," the first thing we confirm is not the destination. It is a single question: "Have you done a pre-migration tax ch…
Read more →Cross-border Compliance
Why Treaty Shopping Gets Denied: The Limits of a Substance-Free Intermediary
"I set up a company in Hong Kong specifically to apply the reduced treaty rate to dividends coming out of China." When it comes to dividend planning through an …
Read more →Cross-border Compliance
The "Offshore Means Tax-Free" Misconception: Withholding Tax in China When No Treaty Applies
"I set up a company in the BVI, so the rate is zero — a perfect structure." When it comes to holding assets through offshore entities, we hear this constantly. …
Read more →Succession
The Life-Insurance Trust: A Structure for Not Handing Over the Payout All at Once
We hear the same reassurance from foreign wealth holders in Japan who have taken out life insurance for their families: "If something happens to me, my spouse a…
Read more →Family Wealth
What Is a Trust: A Mechanism That Gives Property Its Own Legal Standing
"I want to set up a trust." We hear this constantly from clients with assets to protect — and behind it usually sits the same picture: putting property somewher…
Read more →Family Wealth
Civil Trusts: A Japanese Family Trust You Can Set Up Without Leaving the Country
"I want to set up a trust, but I do not want to open offshore accounts or build a complex foreign structure to do it." We hear this repeatedly from wealth holde…
Read more →Cross-border Compliance
What Is a Tax Treaty? The Structure of Double-Tax Relief Every Cross-Border Earner Should Understand First
"My company is incorporated in Hong Kong, yet the dividend from my Chinese subsidiary was withheld at 20%." From clients operating across borders, we hear this …
Read more →Succession
Where Is Your "Domicile"? Residency, the Gift-Tax Obligation, and the Loophole the 2017 Reform Closed
"If I move my domicile overseas, is a gift of foreign-situated assets free of Japanese gift tax?" From clients weighing how to transfer wealth across generation…
Read more →Cross-border Compliance
Understanding the Tax-Accountant Profession: A Structural Lens for Evaluating Professional Support
"What do you think of my tax accountant?" Foreign wealth holders in Japan ask us this repeatedly. It sounds like a question about service quality — but in tax m…
Read more →Cross-border Compliance
The Annual Compliance Calendar for Wealth Holders: What "Filing Once a Year" Overlooks
"I take care of taxes once a year, at the March filing." We hear this constantly from foreign residents who earn income in Japan and hold assets back home. The …
Read more →Cross-border Compliance
Tax Saving, Evasion, and Avoidance: Where the Three Lines Are Drawn
"I book all my personal spending as company expenses — that's tax saving, isn't it?" We hear this from business owners constantly. To state the conclusion plain…
Read more →Cross-border Compliance
When a Tax Audit Notice Arrives: What You Can Refuse, and What You Can Protect
Monday morning, a call from the tax office: "We would like to review your company's situation — may we arrange a time?" Business owners living in Japan come to …
Read more →Cross-border Compliance
The Structure of Japan's Tax Penalties: From Surcharges to Criminal Liability
"If my filing is only about a month late, surely it's no big deal." We hear this from business owners in Japan again and again. But Japan's tax penalties are no…
Read more →Family Wealth
Asset Protection Through Trusts: What Decides Whether It Holds Is *When* You Set It Up
"When the business gets into trouble, can I use a trust to shield assets held in my spouse's name from creditors?" Business owners with assets ask us this const…
Read more →Cross-border Compliance
Handling Dividends from China: The Structure of Double Taxation for Chinese Business Owners in Japan
One question we hear again and again from Chinese business owners living in Japan is this: "I received a dividend from my company in China — do I have to report…
Read more →Family Wealth
A Roadmap for Wealth Succession: What to Put in Place from Your 30s to Your 70s
"I wish I'd started earlier." We hear this from foreign wealth holders in Japan again and again. Most of the instruments used in wealth succession are not, in t…
Read more →Cross-border Compliance
Japan's Exit Tax: How an "Unrealized Gain You Never Sold" Becomes Taxable
From wealth holders preparing to return to their home country, we hear one sentence again and again: "I'm only holding it — I haven't sold anything, so there sh…
Read more →Family Wealth
A Family Office Is Not a Tax-Saving Device: When the Scale Justifies One, and What It Actually Does in Japan
"A friend set up a family office in Singapore — should I have one too?" We hear this question repeatedly from clients in Japan who hold significant assets. In m…
Read more →Cross-border Compliance
"Move the People, or Move the Structure?" — What to Clarify Before Considering a Move to Singapore or Hong Kong
"A friend moved the company to Singapore and says there's no estate tax and no capital gains tax there — is that true?" We are asked this repeatedly. As a matte…
Read more →Cross-border Compliance
The Exit Tax: Before You Leave Japan Holding ¥100 Million in Securities
"I've built enough wealth in Japan — I'm thinking of going home." We repeatedly meet wealth holders who arrive with this plan and no idea that *leaving itself* …
Read more →Cross-border Compliance
CRS and the Overseas Assets Report: Why "Japan Can't See My Home-Country Accounts" Is a Myth
"The assets in my home-country bank are invisible to the Japanese tax authority." We hear this constantly from foreign-national wealth holders in Japan. They ho…
Read more →Family Wealth
Life Insurance and Inheritance Tax: Two Functions — the "Exemption" and "Liquidity for Tax"
"Most of the estate is real estate, and there's no cash to pay the inheritance tax." We hear this concern repeatedly from wealthy residents in Japan. Inheritanc…
Read more →Family Wealth
The Civil Trust Option: A Set of Operating Rules for Cognitive Decline and Multi-Generational Succession
"A family trust is something you set up through a trust company — surely you need substantial assets to use one." We hear this assumption repeatedly from wealth…
Read more →Family Wealth
The Holding Company as Structure: Separating the Function of Earning from the Function of Holding
"I already have an operating company — why would I set up another?" Owners whose businesses have found their footing ask us this repeatedly. The answer lies in …
Read more →Family Wealth
The Family Company and Income Splitting: From a One-Person Entity to a Family Enterprise
"I've set up a company and pay myself a director's salary — that should be enough." Once revenue reaches a certain scale, we hear this repeatedly from owner-ope…
Read more →Family Wealth
Same Income, Different Tax Burden: How Sole Proprietorships and Corporations Are Taxed Differently
"Isn't incorporating just one more layer of paperwork?" We hear this question repeatedly from sole proprietors whose income has grown. Yet earning income as an …
Read more →Family Wealth
Earn, Hold, Pass On, Leave: Japan's Four Tax Moments Across the Wealth Lifecycle
"I've finally found my footing in Japan — now I just build quietly." We hear this often from foreign entrepreneurs and professionals living here. Yet when you l…
Read more →Succession
Will China Introduce an Estate Tax? Structuring Your Assets Before the Rules Change
"Does China have an estate tax?" Wealth holders among the Chinese community in Japan ask us this repeatedly. The answer, for now, is no. But "not now" is not th…
Read more →Succession
The Small-Scale Land Special Rule: Cutting Home-Land Valuation by Up to 80%
"My home sits on highly valued land — I worry whether the inheritance tax can be paid." We hear this concern repeatedly from clients whose wealth is concentrate…
Read more →Succession
The Life-Insurance Exemption: The Most Basic Structure in Succession Planning
"Cash left to my children is taxed — is insurance different?" We hear this question repeatedly from wealth holders approaching the question of succession. The s…
Read more →Succession
Lifetime Gift or Inheritance After Death: Not "Which Is Cheaper" but "How to Design It"
"If I hand the house to my child now, will the tax be lighter than passing it on after I die?" People thinking about succession ask us this constantly. The answ…
Read more →Succession
One Estate, Two Legal Systems, Several Taxes: Treating a Japan–China Inheritance as a Structural Problem
"My parent passed away in Japan. There is property here and property in China. Where do I even begin?" We hear this from Chinese wealth holders in Japan again a…
Read more →Succession
Leave Japan, and the Inheritance Tax Still Follows: The "Ten-Year Rule"
"Once I leave Japan and return home, Japanese inheritance tax no longer concerns me." Many who consult us begin from this premise, and we begin by examining it.…
Read more →Succession
When a Chinese Resident Dies in Japan: Chinese Law or Japanese Law? The First Fork in the Road
When a family in Japan asks us "how should the estate be divided," the first thing we confirm is not the substance of the division but *which country's law* gov…
Read more →Succession
Inheritance Tax: Up to 55% in Japan, Zero in China — The First Gap Chinese Families in Japan Run Into
From Chinese families who own property back home and have also bought a house in Japan, we hear the same line again and again: "There's no inheritance tax on ou…
Read more →Family Wealth
Worldwide Taxation and Residency Status: The First Question for Foreign Wealth Holders in Japan
You have lived in Japan for over a decade, earn tens of millions of yen a year, and still hold two properties and a brokerage account back home. "I file Japanes…
Read more →