NTA corporate-number structure — selected English translation
Source: National Tax Agency, About corporate numbers (法人番号について),
July 2023, printed page 2 / PDF page 5:
Japanese PDF.
Read 2026-09-17. Selected translation of the structure text and table, not the
whole booklet. The source PDF is retained outside Git in
/data/brific/japan_mic/2026-09-17-fx-screen/nta-corporate-numbers.pdf.
A corporate number has 13 digits: a 12-digit base number preceded by a one-digit check digit. For an incorporated entity registered under the commercial registration system, the base is its 12-digit company/corporation registration number. For other entities, the assigned base differs from every other corporate number's base and every company/corporation registration number.
| Entity category | Base-number structure, excluding the leading check digit |
|---|---|
| National legislative body | 000011 + six-digit serial number |
| National administrative body | 000012 + six-digit serial number |
| National judicial body | 000013 + six-digit serial number |
| Local public body | 000020 or 000030 + six-digit serial number |
| Registered corporation | Four-digit registry-office code + two-digit organization category + six-digit serial number |
| Unregistered corporation or association without legal personality | Begins with 7, followed by serial-number digits |
The table marks bases beginning with 6, 8 and 9 as unused, and shows
registered-corporation registry-office codes from 0100 through 5000.
The NTA structure FAQ also states that an assigned corporate number cannot be changed.
Research interpretation: these fields describe registration and entity category, not industry. The local-public-body prefix is broader than municipalities.