Japan

On 1 September 2021, Japan established its Digital Agency, tasked with driving the country's digital transformation. The Digital Agency has served as Japan's official Peppol Authority since its founding, leading the Japan Peppol eInvoice initiative that would go on to develop JP PINT, Japan's own Peppol PINT BIS Billing-compliant e-invoicing specification. This is an institutional milestone, not a mandate -- it lays the groundwork for a voluntary electronic e-invoicing standard, not a legal requirement to use one.

From 1 October 2021, businesses could begin applying to Japan's National Tax Agency (NTA) for registration as a "qualified invoice issuer" ahead of the Qualified Invoice System's 1 October 2023 effective date. Registered businesses receive a 14-digit registration number (a "T-number") that must appear on any qualified invoice they issue. This two-year lead-in gave businesses time to register before the consumption-tax input-credit rules tied to registration took effect.

From 1 October 2023, Japan's Qualified Invoice System (適格請求書等保存方式) took effect under the Consumption Tax Act. To claim input tax credit on a purchase, a business customer generally needs a "qualified invoice" -- issued by an NTA-registered supplier and containing specific mandatory content: the issuer's name and 14-digit T-number, the issuance date, an itemized description of goods/services, amounts split by the applicable consumption-tax rate, and the total consumption tax amount. Crucially, this is NOT an e-invoicing issuance mandate: paper and PDF qualified invoices are both fully valid, and nothing in the law requires the invoice to be transmitted or issued electronically. It's a registration and documentation regime tied to tax-credit eligibility. Qualified invoices and related records must be retained for a minimum of 7 years.

On 30 September 2024, Japan's Digital Agency announced an implementation plan covering JP PINT -- Japan's Peppol PINT BIS Billing-compliant e-invoicing specification, developed with industry body EIPA -- and a "Wildcard Scheme" extension. This continues to build out the voluntary electronic e-invoicing layer that sits alongside, and remains entirely separate from, the mandatory paper-or-electronic Qualified Invoice System that took effect the previous year. No business is required to adopt JP PINT or Peppol.

From 1 October 2026, the transitional relief that lets buyers deduct part of the consumption tax on purchases from NON-registered suppliers (those who haven't opted into the Qualified Invoice System) steps down from 80% to 70%, per the National Tax Agency's published schedule. This taper -- 80% from October 2023, 70% from October 2026, 50% from October 2028, 30% from October 2030 -- gradually increases the tax cost of buying from unregistered suppliers, an economic incentive to register rather than a direct penalty.

From 1 October 2028, the same NTA transitional-relief taper for purchases from non-registered suppliers drops again, from 70% to 50%. Further scheduled reductions follow under the same framework: 30% from 1 October 2030 through 30 September 2031, after which the relief is expected to be eliminated entirely, though the NTA source reviewed didn't explicitly confirm that end state. Separately, smaller businesses (taxable sales of JPY 100 million or less, or JPY 50 million or less for certain specified periods) can continue claiming credit on purchases under JPY 10,000 tax-inclusive using ledger records alone, with no qualified invoice needed, through 30 September 2029.