Race for Documentation

We have had numerous meetings, spoke to the lawyer and checked many websites. A lot of work and bureaucracy is necessary to register a company!
The latest snag we hit is with the articles of incorporation. We must state the purpose of our company clearly in it, but after seeing our document the lawyer had several criticism:

1. A company's purpose can only be profit linked, therefore objectives like "preserving Japanese architecture" cannot be accepted.
2. We stated that we would like to arrange "country side activities", however if we were to add this to our purpose, we would need a "Travel Agent license".
3. If we rent out a house for a long period we do not need any special license, on the other hand if we would rent it only for short term stay we need a "ryokan license".

I totally object to point number 1. A public company must not only serve the profit motive, but also has a mission to society, its workers and its customers, something that is commonly known as stakeholders! But we had to give in, and remove any non-profit statement from our Articles of Incorporation.

Why do we need a travel agent license to arrange simple events, like feeding new born lambs, helping harvesting a field, or cleaning up a river? Are they crazy? Nevertheless we wouldn't mind acquiring such a license, but unfortunately a large cash deposit of 3 million yen is required. At this stage we therefore give this a miss.

We really don't see what a rental apartment has to do with a Japanese Inn. We do not provide board, and we will only have self-contained house units, without elevators. Maybe there are safety concerns... I think we cannot escape this one, so we will apply for it. The good news is that such a license is inexpensive and is issued by the prefecture rather than from the central government. So I think it will be easier to comply with all requirements.

Now the last obstacles remains the registrations and various personal documents that all members have to obtain for submission. Everything must be stamped by inkan a hundred times, and then notarised. I hope we can make it before Golden Week!