New rules, public consultations, subsidies and regulator actions in Japan, in English.
Japan's 16th-round business succession and M&A subsidy takes applications to November 6, but late filers may get no second chance to fix mistakes, and the program notice urges submission by October 29.
Regions in Tokyo's inland-quake zone or the Mount Fuji hazard area would be ruled out as alternative capital-function sites, and sub-capital designation would need either special wards or a prefecture-city cooperation pact; comments close on October 16.
Japan's National Police Agency wants driving schools to cut the minimum ordinary-car basic-driving lessons for semi-medium licence trainees from 12 periods to 9, with public comment open until October 31.
Companies installing blackout-capable gas cogeneration in shelters and public buildings can claim up to ¥240mn, but the call closes as soon as its budget runs out.
METI and the environment ministry are taking comments until 31 October on draft guidelines that make storage operators fund 30 years of post-handover monitoring through a levy to JOGMEC, alongside rewritten permit and closure screening criteria.
The Consumer Affairs Agency is consulting until October 30 on listing the law on preventing sexual violence against children by schools and childcare businesses under the Whistleblower Protection Act, with a planned effective date of December 25, 2026.
The FSA's data to June 2026 show colocated high-speed traders sending about 85% of Tokyo equity orders but accounting for about 45% of turnover.
Draft rules would bar winning firms and their affiliated builders from related construction tenders, and give extra points for wage-rise pledges, with bid opening from mid-February 2027 and contracts from 1 April 2027; comments close 15 October.
JBIC signed a loan of up to $240mn for Aircastle, a Marubeni- and Mizuho Lease-backed lessor of used aircraft, within a $400mn co-financing with nine private banks.
Up to half of eligible costs, or two-thirds for qualifying SMEs, is covered, with ceilings of ¥100mn for feasibility studies and ¥500mn for demonstrations; applications close at noon on 23 October and payment generally comes after projects end.
Six draft orders from the FSA would have designated operators report corporate numbers for suppliers, holders of 5% or more of their voting rights and supply-chain intermediaries, with comments due by noon on 31 October 2026.
The Japan Fair Trade Commission's final guidance under the subcontracting and freelance acts counts know-how as intellectual property, and says a client that held a contractor's schedule for a long period, then cancelled just before the work, must cover the contractor's costs and losses.
The FSA counts 30.48 million NISA accounts and ¥85tn of cumulative purchases at end-June 2026, against government targets of 34 million accounts and ¥56tn for end-2027, with investment trusts taking 61.9% of this year's buying.
The FSA's table to August 2026 logs 514,602 SME applications to change loan terms and 497,152 executions, with regional banks receiving 448,691 of the applications; its 98.6% rate excludes requests under review or withdrawn.
JBIC's ¥20bn share of a ¥33.5bn syndicated loan helps fund SG Holdings' purchase of Taiwan-based Morrison Express, an air forwarder for chip and electronics makers; the deal closed in May 2025.
A second call for Japan's resource-circulation subsidy offers up to half of eligible costs to SMEs and a third to large firms, with a ¥100mn per-project minimum and applications closing on 6 November.
A draft audit-standards revision before Japan's Business Accounting Council would have auditors assess going concern for at least a year after accounts are approved for publication, effective for fiscal years ending March 2028.
The Japan Tourism Agency has asked prefectures to act against Kyushu operators that build the discount into their prices, up to removing them from the scheme, which covers stays from 1 October.
A draft revision from Japan's communications ministry would analyse how solution services affect network competition, add information checks at NTT East, West and Docomo, and verify NTT East and West's utilisation businesses; comments close on 30 October.
A draft MIC ordinance would give intermediaries between telecom operators and equipment suppliers their own filing section, add corporate numbers to supplier disclosures and widen a voting-rights look-back to six months in introduction plans, with a proposed start of 12 January 2027.
Registered buildings, cultural landscapes and locally designated properties could anchor a municipality's historic-townscape plan under a draft revision of the national policy, with registered buildings admitted only if also designated landscape buildings. Comments close on 28 October.
The Financial Services Agency wants to tailor licensing and minimum capital for firms insuring only their own group, but assumes no extra tax relief, and would park primary captives for later study.
Tokyo Bay's most oxygen-starved inner waters would be held to 10-year interim goals as low as 14% of monitoring points, while the innermost zone gets no target at all; public comment closes on 29 October.
A pilot backed on 29 September would link electronic trade documents to a yen stablecoin the three megabanks plan to issue jointly, and the forum's second meeting in early 2027 is due to bring a roadmap.