Working as an accountant in Japan
What official sources say about working as an accountant in Japan: how foreign qualifications are recognised.
Accountant is a regulated profession in Japan. Foreign qualifications go through: Foreign CPA/chartered-accountant credentials receive no exemption from the Japanese CPA examination. The exam is conducted only in Japanese; qualification also requires at least three years of relevant experience, a three-year professional education programme, final assessments and JICPA registration.
- Regulation
- Regulated
- Recognition route
- Foreign CPA/chartered-accountant credentials receive no exemption from the Japanese CPA examination. The exam is conducted only in Japanese; qualification also requires at least three years of relevant experience, a three-year professional education programme, final assessments and JICPA registration.
Regulation and recognition
Accountant is a regulated profession in Japan.
- Recognition route
- Foreign CPA/chartered-accountant credentials receive no exemption from the Japanese CPA examination. The exam is conducted only in Japanese; qualification also requires at least three years of relevant experience, a three-year professional education programme, final assessments and JICPA registration.
- Recognition authority
- For the Japanese CPA route, the Financial Services Agency conducts the statutory qualification framework and JICPA performs mandated professional registration.
- Language requirement
- The Japanese CPA examination is conducted only in Japanese. JICPA publishes no CEFR equivalence on the checked page.
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APA citation
ImmigrationDB. (2026, October 16). Accountant in Japan: recognition [ImmigrationDB compilation; version 4dfc391bf26b6d8e7d95fad5376f9872]. ImmigrationDB. https://immigrationdb.com/move-as/accountant/japan/ Retrieved 2026-10-16. Compilation license: CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/BibTeX citation
@misc{immigrationdb_immigrationdb_accountant-in-japan-recognition_502d4f7a19b2,
author = {ImmigrationDB},
title = {Accountant in Japan: recognition},
publisher = {ImmigrationDB},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-16},
version = {4dfc391bf26b6d8e7d95fad5376f9872},
url = {https://immigrationdb.com/move-as/accountant/japan/},
note = {Retrieved 2026-10-16. ImmigrationDB compilation. Compilation license: CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/},
}Markdown citation
[Accountant in Japan: recognition](https://immigrationdb.com/move-as/accountant/japan/) — ImmigrationDB; ImmigrationDB; version 4dfc391bf26b6d8e7d95fad5376f9872; retrieved 2026-10-16; built 2026-10-16.This citation identifies the ImmigrationDB compilation/page. Underlying source publishers and datasets retain their own terms; inspect the Sources section and cite those records separately. View the underlying source records.