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Japan Invoice Registration Number Checker
Since October 2023 Japan's consumption tax runs on the Qualified Invoice System (インボイス制度). A buyer can only claim input tax credit on an invoice that carries the seller's invoice registration number: the letter T followed by thirteen digits.
For a company the thirteen digits are its corporate number (法人番号); for a sole proprietor they are a separate number assigned by the National Tax Agency. The NTA publishes every registration on its Qualified Invoice Issuer Publication Site (適格請求書発行事業者公表サイト), which is the authority on whether a number is registered today.
Format and check digit verified in your browser; no live registry lookup is available for Japan today. Not affiliated with the Japan tax authority.
Japan VAT number format
- Local name
- インボイス登録番号 (Invoice Registration Number / Qualified Invoice Issuer Number)
- Structure
- T + 13 digits (a company's corporate number, or a number assigned to a sole proprietor)
- Format example
- T1234567890123Illustrative: right shape, not a registered business.
- Standard rate
- 10% · reduced 8%
T followed by 13 digits, for example T1234567890123. Spaces, hyphens and a JP prefix are accepted and removed; the T is added if you leave it out. Only the shape is checked here: the NTA does not publish a check-digit rule that covers sole proprietors' numbers.
How this Japan check works
- Format, in your browser. As you type, the number is compared with the Japan pattern (prefix, length and characters). This costs nothing and sends nothing: a number in the wrong shape is rejected on the spot and never reaches the registry.
- Registration: not available yet. A live lookup against the National Tax Agency’s Qualified Invoice Issuer Publication Site is not available to us today, so a correct format is reported as exactly that — not as a registered business.
- More checks, or from your code. A free account gives you an API key with 100 validations a month, the same answer as this page as JSON.
What usually goes wrong
Sending the corporate number without the T
A company's invoice number is its corporate number with T in front, but a corporate number on its own only proves the company exists. It does not prove the company registered as a qualified invoice issuer. Ask for the T number.
Assuming a registration lasts forever
Registrations can lapse (失効) or be revoked (取消), for example when a business stops trading or deregisters. Check the number again for invoices dated after a long gap.
Treating the corporate number search as the invoice register
The corporate number site (法人番号公表サイト) and the invoice publication site are different registers. Only the second one says whether input tax credit is available.
Frequently asked questions
Is the T number Japan's VAT number?
It is the closest equivalent. Japan's consumption tax works like VAT, and the qualified invoice registration number is what a supplier must print on invoices for the buyer to recover the tax.
Can a sole proprietor have a T number?
Yes. Sole proprietors who register as qualified invoice issuers get a T number too, but their thirteen digits are not a corporate number and are not their My Number.
Does this check the NTA register?
Not yet. Today the number's format is checked. A lookup against the NTA's Qualified Invoice Issuer Publication Site is built and switches on once TaxID's access to the NTA Web-API is issued.
Validating Japan numbers from your own code instead of by hand? The Japan VAT validation API guide has the endpoint, the response shape and examples in four languages. To check a number from another country, go back to the VAT number checker.