What Actually Happens in a Japanese Tax Audit — And How Small Operators Can Be Ready
A few months after filing my second 確定申告 as a sole proprietor running guesthouses in Tokyo, I got an email from my tax accountant with a subject line that made my stomach drop: “About a possible 税務調査.” It turned out to be nothing — just routine administrative guidance (行政指導), not a formal tax audit — but it sent me down a rabbit hole of figuring out what a real tax audit actually involves, and what I’d need to have ready if one ever showed up.