Debt Collection in Japan｜An Overview of Prescription, Procedures and Enforcement

Goods shipped to a Japanese buyer remain unpaid; a contract price for work is postponed month after month; a borrower stops answering. Overseas businesses with customers or debtors in Japan meet these situations regularly, and so do their local advisers. Debt collection in Japan does not begin with a lawsuit: it proceeds in a settled order — investigate the debtor’s means, demand payment, secure the assets, litigate, enforce. What follows is an overview under Japanese law.

Contents

The starting point is the debtor’s means and the assets available to satisfy the claim
Extinctive prescription: the old short prescription periods have been abolished
Portfolios of small claims
The available methods
In closing
How to contact us

The starting point is the debtor’s means and the assets available to satisfy the claim

Recovery turns less on the quality of your paperwork than on whether the debtor still owns anything worth attaching, because a judgment against an empty company recovers nothing. Obtain first the debtor’s certificate of registered matters, the register of any real property, and whatever is known of its banks and premises. A Japanese lawyer may also make a bar association inquiry under article 23-2 of the Attorney Act of Japan, through which public and private bodies may be asked about a debtor’s whereabouts and certain asset information.

Extinctive prescription: the old short prescription periods have been abolished

Under the Civil Code as amended with effect from 1 April 2020, a claim is extinguished five years from the time the creditor became aware that the right could be exercised, or ten years from the time it could be exercised, whichever comes first. The former occupation-based short periods of one, two and three years, and the five-year commercial period, have been abolished. Claims arising before that date remain governed by the earlier rules, so the date the claim arose must be established with care.

A demand by content-certified mail (naiyo-shomei yubin, a Japanese postal certification system) postpones the completion of prescription for six months. That buys time only: to renew prescription, an action must be filed or a demand for payment applied for within those six months.

Portfolios of small claims

Membership fees, mail-order prices and small rental charges rarely justify an ordinary action taken one by one. Japanese law offers two lighter procedures.

Demand for payment (shiharai-tokusoku) — applied for to a court clerk of the Summary Court and issued without any hearing. If the debtor raises no objection within two weeks, a declaration of provisional execution may be attached and the demand becomes an enforceable title. The filing fee is half that of an ordinary action.
Small-claims action — for monetary claims of up to 600,000 yen, heard and decided in a single hearing as a rule, and usable ten times a year in the same Summary Court.

An objection converts a demand for payment into ordinary litigation, so weigh the number of files against the sums at stake and decide in advance which accounts to pursue and which to write off.

The available methods

Negotiation and formal demand — state the amount, its legal basis and a deadline in a notice or by content-certified mail. This preserves evidence and postpones the completion of prescription.
Provisional remedies — where assets may be concealed or disposed of, provisional attachment (kari-sashiosae) may be obtained before the action is filed, freezing bank deposits or real property. The right to be preserved and the necessity of preservation must be shown, and a security bond deposited with the Legal Affairs Bureau, in practice commonly ten to thirty per cent of the sum claimed.
Civil litigation, civil conciliation and demand for payment — litigation where the issues are genuinely contested; conciliation where the debtor is still willing to talk; a demand for payment where the sum is clear and no dispute is expected.
Compulsory execution — once a judgment, a settlement record or a demand for payment gives an enforceable title, execution may be levied against bank deposits, accounts receivable, real property or movables. Execution against claims, in particular the attachment of bank deposits, is in practice the most effective.
Property disclosure procedure — where the debtor’s assets are unknown, the court may order the debtor to appear and state them; failure to appear without justification, or a false statement, is punishable by imprisonment of up to six months or a fine of up to 500,000 yen. A separate procedure for obtaining information from third parties yields deposit information from banks and real property information from the registry.

In closing

Time works against the creditor: the debtor’s position deteriorates and prescription runs. Instructions, asset investigation and an application for provisional attachment can all be handled from abroad by email and video conference, and we are equally glad to work through the creditor’s own counsel.

How to contact us

Telephone 03-6435-8418 within Japan, or +81-3-6435-8418 from overseas. Lines are open from 08:00 to 24:00 Japan time, including Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. Enquiries are also received at any hour through the form on this site.

M&A Partners Law Office LPC　Katsuhiro Tsuchiya, Representative Attorney-at-Law (Tokyo Bar Association, Registration No. 26775)　17F Mori Trust Shiroyama Trust Tower, 4-3-1 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan

This article is a general explanation based on the laws and practice of Japan as at August 2026 (Reiwa 8). The outcome of any particular matter depends on its own facts, and no specific result is guaranteed.

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