Public Notice (Koukoku) One Month Before the Application
The public notice is mandatory before the certification application of a religious corporation, at least one month ahead. See what it is, how to count the period and what to do if it falls short.
Last updated: October 2026
The public notice (kokoku, 公告) is the step in which a church makes public its intention to become a religious corporation (shukyo hojin, 宗教法人), before filing the certification application (ninsho shinsei, 認証申請). According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, it must be made at least one month before the application. As a safe margin, our system works with 31 days.
This article is informational. The exact form of the notice and how the period is counted in your case should be confirmed with a licensed administrative scrivener (gyosei shoshi, 行政書士), the professional who prepares the certification application, and with the competent authority (shokatsucho, 所轄庁). The system tracks the date within the journey but does not replace that review.
Where the public notice fits in the journey
The order is linear: diagnosis, preliminary consultation (jizen kyogi, 事前協議), founders' meeting (hokkinin-kai, 発起人会), public notice, certification application, certificate (ninsho-sho, 認証書), establishment registration (setsuritsu toki, 設立登記), establishment notification (setsuritsu todoke, 設立届) and completion.
The public notice comes after the founders' meeting, when the name, the rules (kisoku, 規則), the future officers, the authority to apply and the fate of the place of worship are already in the minutes, and before the certification application. See what the founders' meeting decides. The public notice exists so that the intention to incorporate is visible before it reaches the competent authority.
What the public notice is in practice
Under the Religious Corporations Act (shukyo hojin ho, 宗教法人法), before applying for certification of its rules, the church must present a summary of the draft to its believers and other interested persons, ask for their views and give the act publicity. This is provided for in Article 12 of the Act and described in the Agency for Cultural Affairs' procedure for establishing a corporation. In practice the notice is usually posted in a visible, accessible place, such as the place of worship itself, and kept there for the necessary period.
It is not the same as the preliminary consultation, which is the preparatory dialogue with the competent authority, nor the certification application, which is the formal filing. The public notice is the public step, and that is why it is easy to forget: nobody replies to it, and the church only has to keep it visible for the right length of time.
The period: one month in the law, 31 days in the system
The Agency for Cultural Affairs advises that the public notice be made "at least one month before" the certification application. A month can have 28, 29, 30 or 31 days, and the exact count depends on the case. So as not to depend on interpretation, Church Manager JP uses 31 calendar days as a safe margin: the system only lets you move on to the certification application once that interval is complete. Always confirm the count with the administrative scrivener.
The most common mistakes:
- Counting from the wrong day. The period runs from the date the notice began to be visible, not from when the text was ready. These are calendar days, not working days.
- Filing the certification application before the period is complete. The application risks being returned, which delays the whole calendar.
- Not keeping proof of the start date. A dated photo, the minutes or a notice to the congregation later show that the period was met, and this record becomes part of the file.
Treat the start date as a formal commitment of the journey. A public notice that was started wrongly is usually fixed by restarting the count.
What this means for your church
After the founders' meeting, set the start date of the public notice with room to spare, allowing for the minimum period and for the time the congregation needs to prepare the application documents in parallel. The most frustrating scenario is arriving at the competent authority with everything ready except the waiting period. To see how long the whole process usually takes, read how long it takes to establish a religious corporation, and for the full picture the step-by-step guide.
How Church Manager JP helps
Church Manager JP is a tool, not a law office. It records the start date of the public notice, flags when the 31 days are not yet complete and sends redundant deadline alerts by email. It never files the certification application and never represents the church before the competent authority. The application is a reserved act: it belongs to the church or to an administrative scrivener the church hires and pays directly.
Frequently asked questions
Q. Does the public notice come before or after the founders' meeting? A. After. The order is founders' meeting, public notice and certification application. The resolutions of the founders' meeting, such as the name and the draft rules, are the basis of what is made public.
Q. Are the 31 days calendar days or working days? A. Calendar days. The count does not skip weekends or holidays. Official guidance says "at least one month", and 31 days is the margin we use to avoid miscounting.
Q. What happens if the certification application is filed before the period is complete? A. The application risks being returned by the competent authority because the public notice requirement was not met. The safe course is to wait for the period to finish before filing.
Q. Who decides where and how the public notice is posted? A. The usual practice is a visible, accessible place, such as the place of worship itself. The exact form and any additional requirement should be confirmed with the administrative scrivener or the competent authority.
Q. Do we need to keep proof that the public notice was made? A. Yes. A dated photo, the minutes or a notice to the congregation help prove the start date and form part of the certification application file.
Official sources
Read next
The founders' meeting is the formal meeting with five resolutions between the preliminary consultation and the public notice. See what the minutes must contain and why the church is not yet a religious corporation.
The 7 steps to turn your church into a religious corporation in Japan, from first diagnosis to final registration, and who does what at each stage. A guide for foreign churches.
The full process to certification and registration takes about 3 years. See the timing of each stage, from the preliminary consultation to the final notification, and what delays it most.