Family money and financial regulation through the differences with Singapore
In recent years, the term “family office” has become more commonly heard in Japan as well.
However, when business owners or wealthy individuals in Japan think about creating an organization to manage their family’s assets over the long term, they encounter one issue.
That issue is this:
Japan does not have a dedicated licensing exemption framework like Singapore’s SFO framework, which treats a “family office that manages only the assets of one family” as a separate category . . .
Contents
- Singapore has a dedicated licensing exemption framework for qualifying SFOs
- Japan has no independent rule saying “exempt because it is an SFO”
- “Own assets” and “assets pooled as a fund” are different
- Japan does have the “Article 63 exemption,” but...
- What changed with the 2026 reform?
- Why this difference matters
- Possible forms of family offices in Japan
- Japan is also beginning to change
- Does Japan need a “family office license”?
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