Responsible Officers (Sekinin Yakuin): How Many a Religious Corporation Needs
The law requires three responsible officers in total, one of them the representative officer, not four people. Learn the two roles, the legal minimum and how to prepare your church's board.
Last updated: October 2026
A religious corporation (shukyo hojin, 宗教法人) needs at least three responsible officers (sekinin yakuin, 責任役員) in total, and one of them must be the representative officer (daihyo yakuin, 代表役員). It is not four people: the representative counts among the three. This minimum comes from Article 18, paragraph 1, of the Religious Corporations Act (shukyo hojin ho, 宗教法人法).
This article is informational. The final composition of the board, and whether it suits your church, should be confirmed with a licensed administrative scrivener (gyosei shoshi, 行政書士), the professional who prepares the certification application. The software does not replace that check.
The right number: three in total, not four
Article 18, paragraph 1, of the Religious Corporations Act provides that a religious corporation has three or more responsible officers and that one of them is the representative officer. Many people read the rule as "1 representative officer + 3 responsible officers", which would make four. That reading is wrong: the representative officer is one of the three, not an extra person.
The mistake is easy to make, even in material that circulates among churches, so it is worth saying plainly. The legal minimum is three people in total.
The two roles inside the three
- Representative officer: represents the religious corporation toward third parties, signing contracts and formal acts. This person is one of the three responsible officers, not a separate post.
- Responsible officers: the whole group, the representative officer included. They decide together on administration: property, the budget and other important matters.
Any church that plans to become a religious corporation therefore needs at least three people willing to take on this role, one of whom will also act as the legal representative.
Why the number matters before the application
The number of responsible officers is not just a formality for the certification application (ninsho shinsei, 認証申請). It comes up at least three times in the process:
- In the rules (kisoku, 規則), similar to articles of association, which must describe how the responsible officers are chosen, how long they serve and how they are replaced.
- At the founders' meeting (hokkinin-kai, 発起人会), where choosing the people proposed for these posts is one of the resolutions recorded in the minutes. At that stage the group is still a religious organization (shukyo dantai, 宗教団体) without legal personality, so those chosen are proposed to take office once the religious corporation comes into existence.
- In the review by the competent authority (shokatsucho, 所轄庁) during the preliminary consultation (jizen kyogi, 事前協議). Leadership that keeps changing, or never settles on three people, gives an impression of instability.
It is better to identify these people early, not only on the day the application is filed.
Who can be a responsible officer?
The law does not set a professional qualification. In practice, the expectation is that the person belongs to the faith community and can take continuing responsibility for running the church. Churches usually choose among pastors, leaders and long-standing trusted members. Any restriction that applies to your case should be confirmed with the administrative scrivener.
What to do now
If your church does not yet have three clearly identified people, settle that before moving further into the preliminary consultation. Recording who holds each role as part of normal management (meeting minutes, a leadership register) gradually builds the record of stability that the competent authority likes to see. For the full list of conditions, see the requirements for a religious corporation in Japan and the step-by-step guide to establishing one. The rules that describe these posts are covered in the required items of the rules.
How Church Manager JP helps
Church Manager JP is a management tool, not a law office. It records who holds each leadership role, keeps the minutes and checks, in the formalization journey, that the officers on file meet the legal minimum of three responsible officers, one of them the representative officer. It never files the certification application, never represents the church before the competent authority and does not perform reserved acts: the application belongs to the church or to an administrative scrivener the church hires and pays directly.
Frequently asked questions
Q. Is it one representative officer plus three responsible officers, four people in all? A. No. The law requires three responsible officers in total, and the representative officer is one of them, not a fourth person.
Q. Can a church have more than three responsible officers? A. Yes. Three is the legal minimum, and the church may provide for a larger number in its rules if that suits its structure.
Q. Must the representative officer be the pastor of the church? A. The law does not specifically require it. The church decides in its rules how the representative officer is chosen. Practice varies, so confirm with the administrative scrivener.
Q. Does the requirement differ between an affiliated and an independent church? A. The minimum of three responsible officers applies to both. What differs between a church affiliated with a larger religious body (hihokatsu, 被包括) and an independent one (tanritsu, 単立) is other content of the rules, not the number of officers.
Official sources
Read next
The rules are the founding document of a religious corporation, like articles of association. See what Article 12 requires, who decides the content and how it fits the certification application.
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.
Place of worship, officers, three years of continuity and church rules: the real requirements the Japanese authorities assess for certification, and how to prepare.