A Bank Account Needs an Address in Japan
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Ireland on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
195 exceptions recorded across 74 countries · none match Ireland to Japan · Opening a bank account
No Japanese statute says a foreign national may or may not open a bank account. What the law does is tell the bank what it must verify, and the answer decides the question in practice: the Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds makes a bank confirm the customer's name, residence and date of birth before carrying out a specified transaction, and residence means a residence - the same 住居 a municipality records. A foreign national gets a record of residence only on a period of stay longer than three months, so the account follows the residence card rather than the other way round. A second rule runs alongside it: the Foreign Exchange Act divides everybody into residents and non-residents by whether they have a domicile or a place of abode in Japan, and banks apply different account rules to each.
At a glance
- Statutory bar on a foreign national holding an account
- None in the Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds or the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act
Neither Act distinguishes customers by nationality. The first classifies by what is verified, the second by residence.
- What a bank must verify
- Name, residence and date of birth
本人特定事項 in article 4(1)(i) of the Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds, together with the purpose of the transaction and the customer's occupation under items (ii) and (iii).
- Where a residence in Japan is not held
- The ministerial order decides what is verified instead
Article 4(1)(i) carries a bracket for a foreign national without a residence in Japan as specified by Cabinet Order, for whom the matters specified by ministerial order are verified. Neither the Cabinet Order nor the ministerial order was read.
- Resident for foreign exchange purposes
- A natural person with a domicile or place of abode in Japan
Article 6(1)(v) of the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act. The same pair of words the Income Tax Act uses, in a different Act and for a different purpose.
- Threshold a foreign national crosses to be recorded at an address
- A period of stay of more than three months
Article 19-3 of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act, which is what gives a residence card, and article 30-45 of the Basic Resident Registration Act, which puts the holder on the municipal register.
Requirements
- A name, a residence and a date of birth, verified by the bank in the manner the ministerial order prescribes
- In practice a Japanese address, which for a foreign national means a record of residence and therefore a period of stay longer than three months
- A statement of the purpose of the transaction and of the customer's occupation
In detail
The law regulates the bank, and the customer feels it as a rule about themselves
Nothing in Japanese law entitles anyone to a bank account or forbids anyone from having one. What exists is a verification duty on the bank, and its first item is a residence. A person who cannot show one is not refused by any statute; they simply cannot be verified in the ordinary way, and the Act pushes their case into a ministerial order written for people who are not there. That is the difference between a rule and its effect, and it is the whole of why a tourist cannot open an account.
Two meanings of resident, in two Acts, for two purposes
The Foreign Exchange Act's resident is a natural person with a domicile or a place of abode in Japan - the same two words the Income Tax Act uses for its own test. But the Acts answer different questions: the tax Act decides what income is charged, this one decides which foreign exchange rules apply to an account and a transfer. A person can be a resident for one and need checking against the other, and the words being identical makes that easier to miss.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Ireland
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«一 本人特定事項（自然人にあっては氏名、住居（本邦内に住居を有しない外国人で政令で定めるものにあっては、主務省令で定める事項）及び生年月日をいい、法人にあっては名称及び本店又は主たる事務所の所在地をいう。以下同じ。） 二 取引を行う目的 三 当該顧客等が自然人である場合にあっては職業、当該顧客等が法人である場合にあっては事業の内容 四 当該顧客等が法人である場合において、その事業経営を実質的に支配することが可能となる関係にあるものとして主務省令で定める者があるときにあっては、その者の本人特定事項 ２ 特定事業者は、顧客等との間で、特定業務のうち 次の各号 のいずれかに該当する取引を行うに際して»Our translation - not official
(i) Identifying particulars (for a natural person, the name, the residence - or, for a foreign national not having a residence in Japan as specified by Cabinet Order, the matters specified by ministerial order - and the date of birth; for a juridical person, the name and the location of the head office or principal office; the same applies below).
Ours. The default identifier is a residence, and the alternative for someone without one is pushed down into a ministerial order. That is the whole of why a Japanese address is the practical condition of an account.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Japanese government's own consolidated statute book, run by the Digital Agency. It is the only place that publishes Japanese law as it currently stands: each law page states the date the displayed text came into force, the amending instrument that produced it, and a Law RevisionID of the form <lawid>_<yyyymmdd>_<amending-id> which identifies that exact version. A page also warns 未施行あり where amendments are enacted but not yet in force. The text is Japanese and there is no English anywhere on it; each page links out to the Ministry of Justice translation where one exists, which is how the two publishers are related. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty despite being a single-page application.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Japanese only. It publishes the consolidated law and not the amending acts, so an article number here is the article of the resulting law and the instrument that put it there has to be read from the header. It carries no commentary, no notification (告示) and no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Japanese immigration practice lives in 告示 made by the Minister of Justice which this site does not hold. It must not be cited for anything the Immigration Services Agency decides administratively, and it must not be cited for English: the English on the law pages is a link, not a text.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«二 取引を行う目的 三 当該顧客等が自然人である場合にあっては職業、当該顧客等が法人である場合にあっては事業の内容 四 当該顧客等が法人である場合において、その事業経営を実質的に支配することが可能となる関係にあるものとして主務省令で定める者があるときにあっては、その者の本人特定事項 ２ 特定事業者は、顧客等との間で、特定業務のうち 次の各号 のいずれかに該当する取引を行うに際しては、主務省令で定めるところにより、当該顧客等について、 前項各号 に掲げる事項並びに当該取引がその価額が政令で定める額を超える財産の移転を伴う場合にあっては、資産及び収入の状況（ 第二条第二項第四十六号 に掲げる特定事»Our translation - not official
(ii) the purpose of carrying out the transaction; (iii) where the customer is a natural person, their occupation.
Ours. Both are verified rather than merely asked, which is why an account application in Japan asks what the account is for.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Japanese government's own consolidated statute book, run by the Digital Agency. It is the only place that publishes Japanese law as it currently stands: each law page states the date the displayed text came into force, the amending instrument that produced it, and a Law RevisionID of the form <lawid>_<yyyymmdd>_<amending-id> which identifies that exact version. A page also warns 未施行あり where amendments are enacted but not yet in force. The text is Japanese and there is no English anywhere on it; each page links out to the Ministry of Justice translation where one exists, which is how the two publishers are related. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty despite being a single-page application.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Japanese only. It publishes the consolidated law and not the amending acts, so an article number here is the article of the resulting law and the instrument that put it there has to be read from the header. It carries no commentary, no notification (告示) and no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Japanese immigration practice lives in 告示 made by the Minister of Justice which this site does not hold. It must not be cited for anything the Immigration Services Agency decides administratively, and it must not be cited for English: the English on the law pages is a link, not a text.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«五 「居住者」とは、本邦内に住所又は居所を有する自然人及び本邦内に主たる事務所を有する法人をいう。 非居住者の本邦内の支店、出張所その他の事務所は、法律上代理権があると否とにかかわらず、その主たる事務所が外国にある場合においても居住者とみなす。 六 「非居住者」とは、居住者以外の自然人及び法人をいう。»Our translation - not official
(v) 'Resident' means a natural person having a domicile or a place of abode in Japan and a juridical person having its principal office in Japan. A branch, office or other establishment in Japan of a non-resident is deemed a resident, whether or not it has legal authority to act as agent, even where its principal office is abroad. (vi) 'Non-resident' means a natural person or juridical person other than a resident.
Ours. Nationality is absent from both definitions. A Japanese national living abroad is a non-resident here, and a foreign national living in Japan is a resident.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Japanese government's own consolidated statute book, run by the Digital Agency. It is the only place that publishes Japanese law as it currently stands: each law page states the date the displayed text came into force, the amending instrument that produced it, and a Law RevisionID of the form <lawid>_<yyyymmdd>_<amending-id> which identifies that exact version. A page also warns 未施行あり where amendments are enacted but not yet in force. The text is Japanese and there is no English anywhere on it; each page links out to the Ministry of Justice translation where one exists, which is how the two publishers are related. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty despite being a single-page application.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Japanese only. It publishes the consolidated law and not the amending acts, so an article number here is the article of the resulting law and the instrument that put it there has to be read from the header. It carries no commentary, no notification (告示) and no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Japanese immigration practice lives in 告示 made by the Minister of Justice which this site does not hold. It must not be cited for anything the Immigration Services Agency decides administratively, and it must not be cited for English: the English on the law pages is a link, not a text.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
Practical notes
This record rests on two Acts and is deliberately narrow. The Cabinet Order and the ministerial order under article 4(1)(i), which say what is verified for a foreign national without a residence in Japan, were not read, so nothing here describes what such a person can do.
Japan Post Bank, the regional banks and the online banks each publish their own conditions, and those conditions - rather than either Act - are what a reader actually meets. None was read for this record.
A bank's own six-month rule, under which a customer with less than six months of residence is treated as a non-resident for foreign exchange purposes, is a practice described by banks rather than a rule in either Act read here. Nothing in the Foreign Exchange Act states a period.
- consolidates犯罪による収益の移転防止に関する法律 - e-Gov 法令検索
e-Gov 法令検索 (e-Gov Law Search) · consolidated to 2026-08-12
About this source
The Japanese government's own consolidated statute book, run by the Digital Agency. It is the only place that publishes Japanese law as it currently stands: each law page states the date the displayed text came into force, the amending instrument that produced it, and a Law RevisionID of the form <lawid>_<yyyymmdd>_<amending-id> which identifies that exact version. A page also warns 未施行あり where amendments are enacted but not yet in force. The text is Japanese and there is no English anywhere on it; each page links out to the Ministry of Justice translation where one exists, which is how the two publishers are related. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty despite being a single-page application.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Japanese only. It publishes the consolidated law and not the amending acts, so an article number here is the article of the resulting law and the instrument that put it there has to be read from the header. It carries no commentary, no notification (告示) and no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Japanese immigration practice lives in 告示 made by the Minister of Justice which this site does not hold. It must not be cited for anything the Immigration Services Agency decides administratively, and it must not be cited for English: the English on the law pages is a link, not a text.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- consolidates外国為替及び外国貿易法 - e-Gov 法令検索
e-Gov 法令検索 (e-Gov Law Search) · consolidated to 2026-08-12
About this source
The Japanese government's own consolidated statute book, run by the Digital Agency. It is the only place that publishes Japanese law as it currently stands: each law page states the date the displayed text came into force, the amending instrument that produced it, and a Law RevisionID of the form <lawid>_<yyyymmdd>_<amending-id> which identifies that exact version. A page also warns 未施行あり where amendments are enacted but not yet in force. The text is Japanese and there is no English anywhere on it; each page links out to the Ministry of Justice translation where one exists, which is how the two publishers are related. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty despite being a single-page application.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Japanese only. It publishes the consolidated law and not the amending acts, so an article number here is the article of the resulting law and the instrument that put it there has to be read from the header. It carries no commentary, no notification (告示) and no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Japanese immigration practice lives in 告示 made by the Minister of Justice which this site does not hold. It must not be cited for anything the Immigration Services Agency decides administratively, and it must not be cited for English: the English on the law pages is a link, not a text.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source