Korea Market Entry for Japanese Companies

The Korean procedure itself does not change with the country of origin, but the friction points do. For a Japanese head office they are predictable: the legalisation route for corporate documents, the gap between visa-free entry and the right to hold a post in Korea, and how pension contributions are treated. KOCATION is operated by VISION Administrative Office, a licensed administrative agency (행정사) that receives the entity registration, the assignment visas and the settlement work through one point of intake.

Deciding the Entity: Subsidiary, Branch or Liaison Office

A Korean presence is registered as a foreign-invested subsidiary, a Korea branch office or a liaison office. If the office will contract with Korean customers and recognise revenue, it has to be a subsidiary or a branch; a liaison office is limited to non-sales functions such as liaison, market research, advertising and R&D support.

A subsidiary can be registered as a foreign-invested company where the investment meets the Foreign Investment Promotion Act threshold of KRW 100 million or more per foreign investor. A branch or liaison office follows the notification route under the Foreign Exchange Transactions Regulations instead. The choice also determines which visa route is open to the people you send.

Head-Office Documents and the Apostille Route

Japan is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so Japanese public documents — such as the certificate of registered matters and the seal registration certificate issued by the Legal Affairs Bureau — are prepared for Korea with an apostille from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs rather than consular legalisation.

Private documents drawn up by the head office, such as powers of attorney and board resolutions, are not directly eligible for an apostille. They are notarised by a Japanese notary first and then apostilled. Getting this sequence wrong means sending the head office back to redo its paperwork, and it is the most common cause of lost weeks. Korean translations are required either way.

Status of Stay for Japanese Assignees

Japanese nationals are covered by visa-free entry for short visits, which distinguishes this market from countries whose nationals need a visa in advance. But being able to enter is not the same as being able to hold a post: taking up duties at the Korean establishment requires the corresponding status of stay.

Essential professional personnel dispatched by a foreign company to its own establishment in Korea use D-7; essential professional personnel of a foreign-invested company use D-8. For D-7 the assignee is generally required to have worked at the foreign head office or another place of business for at least one year before the dispatch, subject to defined exceptions such as assignments in national key industries or state projects. The usual sequence is that the Korean entity applies in Korea for a certificate of confirmation of visa issuance, after which the assignee applies at a Korean embassy or consulate in Japan.

The point that catches Japanese head offices is what happens at the end of the visa-free period. Japan appears on the list of countries designated for visa-free entry with a permitted stay of 90 days, in force since 2 November 1993. But the immigration manual is explicit that a person who entered under a visa exemption or for tourist transit is, as a rule, not granted an extension of the period of stay or a change of status of stay — so a person whose stay will exceed that period must obtain a visa before entering. Arriving visa-free and converting on the ground is not a route.

The Social Security Agreement and Pension

Korea and Japan have a social security agreement under which a seconded employee who remains insured at home may be exempted from Korean National Pension contributions for a period, on the strength of a certificate of coverage issued by the home-country institution. It exists to prevent paying twice, so it is worth checking before the posting starts.

Health insurance is treated differently. An employee at a covered workplace is enrolled as a workplace subscriber from employment, and a foreign resident staying six months or more is subject to mandatory enrolment. Eligibility in any given case depends on the specific facts, so it is assessed per assignment rather than assumed.

Through to Settlement, on One Intake

Once the entity is registered the assignee still needs housing, alien registration, a bank account, a mobile line and, for families, a school place. Korean leases carry large deposits, and the steps that protect a deposit are tied to the immigration-side registration. Because the same team handles registration, visas and settlement, the point of contact does not change between stages.

Japanese Companies — Frequently Asked Questions