Japan recommends PEPPOL for E-Invoicing

According to the Billentis Report of 2021, the E-Invoicing Promotion Association (EIPA) has now been established in Japan and recently announced that PEPPOL is likely to be the standard for e-invoicing in the future.

In a statement, EIPA announced that they will analyze PEPPOL standards by June 2021 in order to develop additional requirements for a Japanese standard and national standards for e-invoicing.

The current consumption tax law in Japan does not yet provide for electronic invoicing. For this reason, the tax system is in urgent need of further development. Until now, Japanese companies have only been required to keep books and records to document the amounts claimed for the tax credit. The new invoicing system, which is expected to be similar to a value-added tax invoicing system, is scheduled to take effect in October 2023.

Although EIPA was not established until July 2020, the first actions have already begun. These include a proposal to use PEPPOL as the nationwide standard for electronic invoicing. Furthermore, EIPA has called on the government to develop an operating system for the introduction and use of electronic invoicing for companies and to speed this up if possible. Recommendations for this have also already been sent to the Minister of Digital Transformation, Takuya Hirai.

Ahead of the targeted launch of the invoicing system in October 2023, EIPA would like to encourage companies to use e-invoicing software that supports PEPPOL by October 2022.