Hello, this is Ryuta Hamamoto from TIMEWELL.
When you decide to build a company, a problem that gets in the way surprisingly early is what to do about your address. To register a corporation you need a head-office address, but leasing an office outright sends hundreds of thousands to millions of yen flying out the door on deposits and fit-out. On the other hand, if you put your home address straight into the register, that address becomes something anyone can look up. Hunting for a café every time you have a meeting is unsettling too. You know what you want to make, yet you stall at the vessel that holds it. I think this is a small, but quietly consequential, wall that many people about to start a business hit first.
I myself run my business with the head office in Minatomirai, Yokohama, in Kanagawa, and this city actually has quite a range of options suited to a company in its early days. In this article, for those about to start a business in Kanagawa (centred on Yokohama and Kawasaki), I first organise the axes for choosing an office, then compare three types on a fact basis: the virtual office, coworking, and public support hubs. I will not rank them or declare "this one is best." The aim is to let you choose, for yourself, the shape that fits your business stage and industry. Note that every price and every yes-or-no on registration listed here is based on the public information of each provider and facility as of July 2026, so always confirm the latest conditions on the official sources.
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What should you base your founding-stage office choice on?
First, let us fix the axes for choosing before anything else. Stare at each provider's price table while this is still blurry and you tend to pick on cheapness alone, only to notice later that "we couldn't register" or "an important piece of mail arrived late." When I look at a founding-stage office, the points I think matter come to roughly seven.
The first is whether corporate registration is possible. The head-office address is written into the articles of incorporation and the register, and it is disclosed externally. Some virtual office plans do not support registration, so this is the very first thing to check. The second is meeting rooms, in particular whether you can secure a space where a team of 10 to 20 people can gather with colleagues or business partners. The third is the price band, where it matters to look at the real cost including not just the monthly fee but the enrolment fee, the minimum contract period and optional charges. The fourth is the credibility of the address. Whether you can put a prime-location address such as in front of Yokohama Station, in Minatomirai or in Kannai on your business card and your site affects how business partners see you.
The fifth is handling of mail and phone calls. Administrative, tax and contract documents often carry deadlines, so how mail is received and how often it is forwarded cannot be overlooked. Whether you need a phone number lent to you, call forwarding or a secretarial service also varies with your business. The sixth is whether a coworking space is attached. If your way of working is to usually work alone or in a small group and occasionally want a seat where you can focus, being able to hold your workplace and your address together keeps you light. The seventh is location, where proximity to a station bears directly not only on you but on the burden placed on the person you ask to come.
Try applying these seven to the current stage of your own business and setting priorities. Rather than searching for a perfect option that satisfies all of them, having a criterion you can settle on, such as "for me right now, registration and a prime-location address are top priority; occasional rental of a meeting room is enough," makes the decision easier.
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Usually online, occasionally gathering. The standard shape of today's startups
Now that we have talked about the axes, let me confirm the premise of how a founding-stage business works, because if this is off you will end up leasing a needlessly grand office and struggling under fixed costs.
Most small teams today run their day-to-day work centred on online. Meetings happen over video, materials are shared in the cloud, and development and back-office work each proceed wherever people are. There is less need than before for everyone to come into the same room every day. On top of that, occasions arise a few times a month where you want to meet the team face to face to align direction, or to talk in person with investors or business partners. In other words, what is realistic for many early-stage teams is a hybrid shape: hold a small base with an address and minimal facilities, use a meeting room or a coworking seat only when needed, and otherwise move remotely.
Standing on this premise changes how the options look. You do not need a large office to camp in every day; at the same time, you do want "an address you can register" and "an environment where you can occasionally use enough seats for everyone, or a meeting room." How to combine these two is the crux of founding-stage office design. From the next section, let us look at Kanagawa's concrete options through this lens.
Kanagawa's options, by type
Kanagawa, and Yokohama and Kawasaki in particular, has hubs usable in the early days of a business, arranged by type. Here I introduce three: virtual offices, coworking and meeting rooms, and public or quasi-public support hubs. To repeat, the figures and the yes-or-no listed are public information as of July 2026; I give specific values only for what can be stated as confirmed information, and mark the rest "to be confirmed." Always confirm the latest on the official sources before you sign.
Virtual offices (holding an address and registration at low cost)
A virtual office is a service where you do not hold an actual workspace but rent, on a monthly basis, the use of an address, corporate registration, receipt of mail, and phone handling if needed. Its biggest advantage is being able to hold a prime-location address from a few hundred to a few thousand yen, and it fits well with the hybrid shape where you usually work from home or a coworking space.
Representative services around Yokohama Station that support corporate registration are Resonance Yokohama (レゾナンス横浜店), DMM Virtual Office Yokohama (DMMバーチャルオフィス横浜) and GMO Office Support (GMOオフィスサポート). Because the conditions for registration and the way fees are set differ for each, I lay them out within the range of confirmed information.
| Service (as of July 2026) | Area | Corporate registration | Meeting room | Price band (tax-included guide) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resonance Yokohama (レゾナンス 横浜店)1 | 2-chome Kitasaki, Nishi-ku, near Yokohama Station (about 5 min. walk from JR Yokohama Station) | Supported on all plans | Yes (members 1,100 yen/hr, non-members 1,650 yen/hr) | From 990 yen/month. Call-forwarding set 3,190 yen/month, phone secretarial set 5,390 yen/month |
| DMM Virtual Office Yokohama (DMMバーチャルオフィス 横浜)2 | Yokohama Station (Kinkocho, Kanagawa-ku, about 2 min. walk from Yokohama Station; the street number is disclosed after signing) | Supported as an in-plan service | Yes (seats 6, 1,000 yen/hour before tax; usable hours to be confirmed) | Minimum 660 yen/month, Basic 2,530 yen/month (annual contract) to 5,500 yen/month (single month), enrolment fee 5,500 yen |
| GMO Office Support Yokohama (GMOオフィスサポート 横浜)3 | 1-chome Sengencho, Nishi-ku, Yokohama | Not possible on "no forwarding"; possible with at least one forwarding a month (from 1,650 yen/month) | Meeting room and workspace usable for members only (details to be confirmed) | No forwarding 660 yen/month, one forwarding a month 1,650 yen, biweekly 2,200 yen, one forwarding a week 2,750 yen/month |
Let me add some points for reading this. Resonance supports registration on all plans, and it handles mail by photo confirmation (free) or over-the-counter pickup, so it suits those who want to keep the lag in receiving mail down. If you need a phone, forwarding and secretarial sets are prepared. DMM's strength is its location about a 2-minute walk from Yokohama Station, and it has a meeting room attached, but note that mail is on a regular forwarding every Wednesday. Also, the company's fixed-phone set stopped accepting new applications on 26 March 2026, and a new phone service is announced as planned for around summer 2026, so anyone who needs a phone number should check the latest availability. GMO's fees are tiered by how often mail is forwarded, and registration requires a plan with at least one forwarding a month. Arrivals and dispatches are notified by LINE. There is no clear statement of a phone option on the official site, so those who need one should confirm.
What the three share is that their meeting rooms are built mainly for a handful of people. For a meeting of 10 to 20, it is realistic to separately combine a large coworking hub, described below, or an hourly rental space.
Coworking and shared offices (holding your workplace and a meeting room together)
If you want a seat you can work from regularly, or you want to use a larger meeting room, coworking and shared offices become candidates. Yokohama has several hubs close to stations.
Regus Japan (日本リージャス) is a major operator with hubs at Yokohama Landmark Tower in Minatomirai, Blue Avenue in Shin-Takashima, and the north exit of Shin-Yokohama Station, among others. The Landmark Tower hub is large in scale, and a feature is that it has meeting rooms of various sizes depending on the location. That said, whether a room for 10 to 20 people is available and its price, and whether registration is allowed under a virtual office or dedicated office contract, are run differently by location, so it is surest to confirm individually on the official site and at each location.
Among station-close coworking spaces, well-known ones include STATION SWITCH Yokohama (about a 1-minute walk from the north-exit ticket gate of Yokohama Station), Vlag yokohama (on the 42nd floor of THE YOKOHAMA FRONT, directly connected to Yokohama Station) and THE HUB Yokohama Kannai in the Kannai area. Third-party information reports price bands such as STATION SWITCH from roughly 7,700 to 27,500 yen a month, Vlag from 33,000 yen a month, and THE HUB from a drop-in of 220 yen per 30 minutes, but as these cannot be verified as confirmed information from the official sources, please confirm the fees, the scale of the meeting rooms and whether registration is allowed on the official sources in every case. In Shin-Yokohama there is WORK STYLING Shin-Yokohama, part of the Mitsui Fudosan group, which is known for being centred on private booths and used on a pay-as-you-go basis. That said, this is a type that often does not support address registration or a meeting room for a large group, so this too should be confirmed.
There is said to be a WeWork hub at Ocean Gate Minatomirai in Minatomirai, but its fees, the capacity of its meeting rooms and whether registration is allowed could not be confirmed in this round of research. If you are considering using it, verify the latest information on the official source.
To sum up, coworking and shared offices can cover "a workplace" and "a meeting room" at once, while whether registration is allowed and whether a large-group meeting room exists vary greatly by location. The trick to not going wrong is not to decide by name recognition but to check, one by one, whether the functions you need are there.
Public and quasi-public support hubs (startup support and incubation)
The third type is the startup-support hubs and incubation facilities run by local governments and public foundations. While you can use them more cheaply than private services and gain chances to consult specialists and to network, a feature is that there is an admission screening and eligibility requirements, and rents are often not made public. It helps to understand that they differ in nature from for-profit office services.
In Yokohama there is YOXO BOX, Yokohama City's startup-growth support hub. It is run by a joint venture with Mitsubishi Estate as the lead firm, and it is located in ICON Kannai in the Kannai area. Its support is centred on fostering an entrepreneurial mindset, brushing up your business, and a monthly Meetup (free), making it a place suited to those aspiring to start a business consulting for the first time or broadening their network4. That said, whether you can use it as a place of registration or a permanent desk is not clearly stated officially, so keep in mind that it is centred on support programmes and a lounge. If you are premising registration or resident use, individual confirmation is needed.
The Institute for Development of Enterprising Community, Yokohama (IDEC横浜) is a foundation that provides startup support, support for overseas expansion, and various consultation desks. Its headquarters is on the 7th floor of the Yokohama Media & Communications Center in Nihon-odori, and it runs a lease-type incubation facility, the Yokohama New Technology Creation Hall (横浜新技術創造館)5. As you rent a section as the base of your business, registration is presumed possible, but it is surest to inquire with the foundation about the individual admission requirements, vacancies and rent.
In Kawasaki, Kawasaki Business Incubation Center (KBIC / かわさき新産業創造センター) is a representative incubation facility. Run by the Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion, it has small offices (about 15 square metres) and research-oriented labs (about 40 to 121 square metres) in the Shin-Kawasaki area6. Because you enter it as the base of your business, registration is possible, and it also suits manufacturing-type startups that involve experiments and prototyping. However, admission requires screening, and as the rent is not listed officially, an inquiry is the premise. Besides this, Kawasaki has support and incubation hubs such as K-NIC (Kawasaki-NEDO Innovation Center) in the Shin-Kawasaki area and Kanagawa Science Park (KSP / かながわサイエンスパーク) in the Mizonokuchi area, all listed on Kanagawa Prefecture's startup-support portal. Check the details, whether registration is allowed, and meeting rooms with each operator.
Public hubs come into value when you view them not merely as a cheap address but as a place where you can gain, together, a sparring partner and peers for the founding stage and an environment for experiments. In particular, for industries where a virtual office cannot be used because of licensing, and for businesses that involve research and development, they become a strong option.
Practical pitfalls to know before you sign
Now that the options by type are in view, let me gather the cautions I want anyone choosing a virtual office in particular to be sure to grasp before signing. Confirming these four before you decide, drawn in by cheapness or location, reduces regret.
The first is the screening for a corporate bank account. A virtual office can put you at a disadvantage in opening a corporate account, or lead a bank to ask for extra documents, if the business is judged to have little real substance. It is not prohibited, but preparing materials that show what your business does, contracts with business partners, your own website, and a track record of transactions to date makes the screening easier to face. Keep in mind that screening standards differ from bank to bank and are not uniform, including at online banks.
The second is that there are industries where a virtual office cannot be used for licensing. For a business where an independent establishment, a dedicated section or a certain floor area is a requirement for the permit, a permit can be hard or impossible to obtain at a virtual office address. Representative examples are real-estate brokerage, fee-charging employment placement and worker dispatch, construction, second-hand goods dealing, industrial waste, and the offices of licensed professionals. If you are considering such a business, it is safer to choose a dedicated office, or a private room in an incubation facility such as KBIC, from the start.
The third is the risk of a duplicated address. Many corporations share the same virtual office address. So in a business partner's credit check or a search of registration information, many companies can appear lined up at the same address, and it is not zero that you could be affected by a corporation that used that address in the past. Confirming that there is no company at the same location or with a similar trade name before you register gives you peace of mind. The fourth is the lag in receiving mail. If forwarding is once a week, biweekly or once a month, receipt of important documents with deadlines, such as registration, tax and litigation matters, can be delayed. Check whether the provider offers a plan with high-frequency forwarding, notification by photo, or over-the-counter pickup. At the same time, phone services generally have a base fee plus a separate option and availability can change, so if you need a phone number, verify the latest conditions right before you sign.
These are not to say you should avoid a virtual office. Prepare so you can show real substance, confirm your industry's requirements, and arrange the mechanism for receiving mail, and the big advantage of holding a prime-location address at low cost stays fully alive. Be wary in the right way and use it. That is all it comes to.
How to take the first step, and to sum up
So, where should someone about to start a business in Kanagawa begin? The order I recommend is to confirm your industry's requirements first. Look into whether your business needs a licence, and if so whether a virtual office suffices, at the very start. If it turns out here that a dedicated section is essential, you can narrow down to incubation or a dedicated office. If there is no such requirement, you can narrow the candidates in the order of, for an address only, a virtual office; and if you also need a workplace, coworking, matched to how you usually work. Then pick a few hubs that interest you, and confirm one by one, on the official source or by inquiry, whether registration is allowed, the meeting rooms, the fees and how mail is received. This steady back-and-forth leads to peace of mind later.
Once the vessel is decided, you can then concentrate on "what to build." I also organise the way of thinking about starting a business that produces value quickly with a small team and little capital in an article on AI-driven development that creates value with a small team and little capital, so please read it alongside this.
Even so, I often hear that people want a sparring partner for their business concept, or a person to consult about where to make AI work. In such times, please take a look at WARP, the service we offer. It is a service in which specialists who led DX and data strategy at major companies walk alongside you month by month, helping you bring AI down into your business. In particular, for those about to start a business and those in the early founding stage, we also have a form specialised in accompanying founders, WARP Entre. Beyond how to set up an office, we think through the design of the business itself together. When you want a sparring partner rather than carrying it all alone, please talk to the WARP team.
This ran long, so let me organise the key points.
- For a founding-stage office, choose by setting priorities to your business stage across seven axes: whether corporate registration is possible, meeting rooms, fees, the credibility of the address, mail and phone, an attached coworking space, and location
- Today's early-stage startups have a hybrid shape as the standard: usually online, occasionally gathering. It is realistic to hold an address and minimal facilities and use a meeting room or a seat only when needed
- Kanagawa has three types: a virtual office you can register at low cost, coworking where you can hold a workplace and a meeting room, and public hubs where there is screening but you can also gain support
- As of July 2026, Resonance Yokohama and DMM Yokohama support corporate registration, while GMO allows registration on plans with at least one forwarding a month, and the conditions differ by provider. Always confirm the latest fees and yes-or-no on the official sources
- A virtual office keeps its advantages fully alive if you grasp four cautions: the corporate account screening, licensing where a virtual office is not allowed, a duplicated address, and the lag in receiving mail
The address and the office are points that, once decided, settle surprisingly quickly. Do not stall too long here; arrange the vessel lightly, and move on quickly to building the business you truly want to do.
References and primary sources
Footnotes
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Resonance, "Virtual Office Yokohama" https://virtualoffice-resonance.jp/area/yokohama/ ― Corporate registration supported on all plans, from 990 yen/month, meeting room (members 1,100 yen/hr, non-members 1,650 yen/hr), call-forwarding set 3,190 yen/month, phone secretarial set 5,390 yen/month, mail photo confirmation (free) and over-the-counter pickup. Fees and conditions as listed on the official page as of July 2026 ↩
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DMM Virtual Office, "Yokohama" https://virtualoffice.dmm.com/office/yokohama ― Corporate registration listed as an in-plan service, Minimum 660 yen/month, Basic 2,530 yen/month (annual contract) to 5,500 yen/month (single month), enrolment fee 5,500 yen, meeting room (seats 6, 1,000 yen/hour before tax), mail on regular forwarding every Wednesday, the fixed-phone set stopped accepting new applications on 26 March 2026 with a new service planned for around summer 2026. As of July 2026 ↩
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GMO Office Support official site https://www.gmo-office.com/ ― The "no forwarding" plan (660 yen/month) does not allow registration; registration is possible with at least one forwarding a month (1,650 yen/month), biweekly 2,200 yen, one forwarding a week 2,750 yen/month, arrivals and dispatches notified by LINE. No phone option clearly stated officially. As of July 2026 ↩
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Yokohama City, startup-growth support hub "YOXO BOX" https://socialport-y.city.yokohama.lg.jp/yoxo-box/ ― Run by a joint venture with Mitsubishi Estate (lead) and others, located at ICON Kannai in Kannai, support such as fostering an entrepreneurial mindset, business brush-up and a monthly Meetup (free). Whether it can be used as a place of registration or for permanent use is to be confirmed. As of July 2026 ↩
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Institute for Development of Enterprising Community, Yokohama (IDEC Yokohama), "Founding and startup support" https://www.idec.or.jp/kigyo/startup/ ― Headquarters at 7F, Yokohama Media & Communications Center, 11 Nihon-odori, Naka-ku, Yokohama, TEL 045-225-3700, running the lease-type incubation "Yokohama New Technology Creation Hall." Rent, whether registration is allowed and meeting-room capacity to be confirmed with the foundation. As of July 2026 ↩
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Kawasaki Business Incubation Center (KBIC) https://kbic.jp/requirement/ ― Run by the Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion, 7-7 Shin-Kawasaki, Saiwai-ku, Kawasaki, small offices of about 15 square metres and labs of about 40 to 121 square metres, admission screening applies. Rent not listed officially, so an inquiry is required. As of July 2026 ↩