HI, I am planning to sell stuff on Rakuten. I don’t want to move to Japan - only sell the products on the online market places. I am in the process of establishing a new company and am looking for a virtual office. I have read the following:
For example, if you’re looking to sell stuff through online marketplaces Rakuten or Yahoo Japan, then you’ll find Rakuten will reject applicants with virtual offices, while Yahoo will reject applicants with their company address at their place of residence.
Is this really true? I cannot use the chamber of commerce as an office address? if not, does anybody have an idea how to solve this issue?
I gather that certainly used to be the case, but for up to date info, probably easiest to ask Rakuten/Yahoo directly on their registration requirements.
For non-online foreign merchants, IIRC even if they had a Representative Office in Japan, that wouldn’t allow them to use it directly for sales to Japan. They would need to establish a branch or subsidiary. Or go through a reseller.
IANAL but I assume this applies to online merchants as well. The internet is just a tool.
So in your case maybe it’s rather a question of whether Rakuten or Yahoo Japan offer a solution to sell from outside of Japan, or not. As opposed to whether you have a virtual office here or not.