{
  "id": 10849803,
  "title": "Japan to mandate beneficial ownership disclosure to combat money laundering",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/30/japan-to-mandate-beneficial-ownership-disclosure-to-combat-money",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-30T03:30:08.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Mainichi",
    "slug": "the-mainichi",
    "url": "https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20260930/p2g/00m/0na/018000c"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The Japanese government is preparing to introduce legislation that will require disclosure of the beneficial ownership of legal entities, according to sources familiar with the matter. This bill aims to combat money laundering and align Japan with other major countries in this effort. The new law, set to be enacted in 2028, will apply to over 4 million privately-owned entities, including religious corporations and nonprofit organizations. Unlike publicly traded companies, which are required to disclose major shareholders, the Justice Ministry currently relies on voluntary reporting for information about beneficial owners who control more than 25 percent of a private entity. Mandatory reporting could lead to penalties for noncompliance and bolster the government's efforts to combat fraud, particularly from crime rings that exploit loopholes and instructions via smartphones. The government also intends to use the collected data to better understand ownership of real estate by foreign nationals. The proposed bill is expected to be submitted to the Diet in early October and could be implemented before the next evaluation by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in mid-2028. The FATF blacklists countries with serious deficiencies in countering money laundering, terrorist financing, and financing of proliferation, which could impact financial institutions and multinational companies if Japan is included.",
  "summary": "TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Japanese government is set to submit to the Diet a bill to mandate disclosure of so-called beneficial ownership of legal entities",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}