🪪 Money Lending Chief Registry: Region Can Now Be Recorded

❓ What is changing?

On August 31, 2026, Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) promulgated and put into force a Cabinet Office Ordinance partially amending the Enforcement Regulations of the Money Lending Business Act. Under the amendment, for a chief of money lending operations (kashikingyo-mu toriatsukai shuninsha) who does not hold Japanese nationality, the nationality field recorded in the registry may now include a specific region. This chief is a qualification under the Money Lending Business Act, and money lenders are required to place one at each business office. The change follows a shift on the family register side. A Ministry of Justice ordinance amending the Enforcement Regulations of the Family Register Act (MOJ Ordinance No. 9 of 2025) took effect on May 26, 2025, providing that when a person whose national law is the law of a specific region files a notification, that region may be entered in the notification form and the family register. The FSA ordinance aligns the chief's registry entries with that treatment. Before the amendment there was no provision for recording a region; now nationality can be registered in a form that includes it. The FSA published the draft for public comment from July 10 to August 10, 2026, and received 7 comments. A summary of the comments with the FSA's responses is published as Attachment 1, and the amended text as Attachment 2.

👥 Who is affected?

• ●Non-Japanese holders of the money lending chief qualification, and those planning to register
• ●People whose national law is the law of a specific region, recorded as such in the family register
• ●HR and compliance staff at money lenders handling qualification registration for foreign employees
• ●Foreign employees working at business offices of consumer finance, installment sales or credit firms

🌏 Impact on foreign residents

The direct impact falls on foreign nationals working in Japan's money lending industry. For someone whose national law is the law of a specific region, the way the family register recorded it and the way the chief registry expressed nationality did not always line up; after the amendment, the registry can include the region as well. This matters both for those already working with the qualification and for those about to obtain and register it. A second, practical effect is consistency across paperwork. When you change jobs or when an employer manages qualifications internally, entries in the family register, residence record and residence card are checked against the registration. Aligned wording makes mismatches less likely during those checks. What was amended here is the part of the Money Lending Business Act regulations dealing with registry entries. It does not create any new filing for people on the borrowing side.