Services and Matter Types | Asset Enquiries, Field Verification and Due Diligence in Asia

What can be established, and how far

What TGI takes on, at each stage of a matter.

TGI supplements the part of a matter that is hard to establish from your own jurisdiction because the assets, people, entities or transactions are in Asia. From judging feasibility before engagement, through identifying assets and the people concerned, on-site verification, retrieval of official records and understanding the other party's means and business, to introductions to local specialists, the work is carried through as one engagement. This page sets out what we do at each stage, the five service lines, what can be established in Japan, the matter types we are asked about most, and how information is obtained and reported.

Stages

From before engagement to resolution and enforcement

Cross-border matters get stuck at a different point at each stage. Below, the difficulty you are likely to meet at each stage is paired with what TGI provides.

Before engagement
Difficulty: feasibility, cost and time cannot be judged for a matter with an overseas element.
TGI: whether it can be done, how, at roughly what cost and in what time, answered free of charge and, as a rule, within three business days.
Identifying assets
Difficulty: whether assets exist abroad, on what scale and in whose name is unknown.
TGI: identification of assets from local registries and official records, and analysis of how they are held and controlled.
Initial enquiries
Difficulty: the whereabouts or circumstances of the other party and those connected cannot be confirmed.
TGI: fieldwork to confirm whereabouts, residence, employment and business operations.
Evidence
Difficulty: official records and source documents abroad are out of reach.
TGI: retrieval of registry extracts, court records and administrative records, supplied as source documents with translation.
Negotiation and recovery
Difficulty: the other party's assets, means and business are not understood.
TGI: enquiries into assets, entities, businesses, connected persons and related companies.
Resolution and enforcement
Difficulty: specialist help is needed locally.
TGI: introductions to, and coordination with, local counsel, accountants and other specialists.

TGI does not take the place of your legal judgement or your role as counsel. Its basic role is to supply the facts from abroad that counsel needs in order to form a legal view.

Services

Five service lines

Open a heading to see each service in detail.

Asset and property enquiries [core service]

For estates, matrimonial property, recovery, concealment of assets and disputes generally, we identify assets located abroad and clarify how they are held: real estate, shares and equity interests, business assets, financial assets, structures held through companies, holding companies and trusts, beneficial owners, transfers to related entities and persons, and the present state and use of the assets. We do not stop at whether an asset appears on a register. Where needed, fieldwork is added so that both “assets that exist on the register” and “assets that actually exist and are in use” are confirmed.

What can be established differs by country. In some jurisdictions land and company records can be searched by name; in others, Japan among them, they cannot. The scope for each country is stated before work begins, and Japan is set out separately below.

For virtual assets, we do not stop at on-chain analysis. We follow the trail from wallet to exchange and, where disclosure or lawful process makes it available, to the account holder, connected persons, location and circumstances. This can be combined with fieldwork to confirm whether the person or entity ultimately controlling the funds exists, where they are and what their business and personal circumstances are. Methods, feasibility, cost and time vary widely by country and exchange, and are designed matter by matter.

Field verification across borders

What open sources and databases cannot show is confirmed by local investigators at the location: whereabouts, residence, employment and business operations, identity, living circumstances, information from connected persons and neighbours, the operations of local entities and premises, and the present state of real estate and other assets. Beyond the whereabouts of individuals in family, estate and property matters, this covers a child's whereabouts and living environment, the reality of companies and businesses, on-site confirmation of intellectual property infringement and, for insurers, the circumstances of a claimed death, accident or hospitalisation.

Corporate investigations and due diligence

For overseas counterparties, investment targets, acquisition candidates, opposing entities, distributors and joint venture partners, we look beyond the corporate record to the operating reality and the relationships behind it: registration and registered office, shareholders, directors and management, beneficial ownership and control, finances and assets, litigation, administrative sanctions and regulatory issues, whether the business is actually trading, related companies and connected persons, and dealings and flows of funds between them. Alongside M&A, overseas investment and pre-contract checks, we handle commercial fraud abroad, internal misconduct and wrongdoing by distributors and joint venture partners.

KYC, sanctions and adverse information

For overseas counterparties, investees, joint venture partners, directors and beneficial owners, we check sanctions lists, links to organised crime (including, for Japan, the “anti-social forces” that Japanese contracts routinely require parties to warrant against), beneficial ownership, career history, litigation and disputes, administrative sanctions and regulatory breaches, adverse media, and the reality, location and trading activity of the entity. An entity that exists on the register but does not trade, or whose nominal shareholders and directors differ from the person in control, cannot be judged from open sources alone. On-site confirmation is added to database checks to establish the difference between the entity on the register and the entity that actually operates. The need arises repeatedly: when a client begins trading or expanding overseas, and in private wealth, private equity, M&A and international transactions.

Pre-engagement feasibility check [free of charge]

Before you take a matter on, we answer without charge: can this enquiry be carried out in that country, by what method, at roughly what cost and in what time, can official records be obtained, and is fieldwork needed. This is not simply a reply to a query. We treat it as an initial assessment in support of your decision on engagement. In the course of it, assets, connected persons or entities abroad that were not apparent sometimes come to light, and a new cross-border matter emerges from an existing client.

Japan

Japan: what the records allow, and how we proceed

Lawyers abroad often assume that a person's address, family records or assets in Japan can be looked up by name. For the most part they cannot. Knowing where the line falls is what makes the work efficient.

Family register and resident register. Closed to third parties. They can be obtained by the person concerned, by certain relatives and, for a proper professional purpose, by Japanese lawyers engaged in the matter.
Real estate. The register is open to anyone, but it is searched property by property, not by the owner's name. Since February 2026 a registered owner, or the heirs of one, can ask the Legal Affairs Bureau for a certificate listing the property registered in that name nationwide. Creditors and other third parties cannot.
Companies. The commercial register is open and searchable by company name. It shows the representative director, in most cases with a home address, but not the shareholders. Since October 2024 a representative director may apply to have part of the address withheld.
Bank deposits and employment. Not open to enquiry. Once an enforceable title exists, the court can order banks to disclose deposits and, after a property disclosure procedure, the registry to disclose real estate. Information on a debtor's employer is available through the court only for maintenance claims and claims for death or personal injury.
Foreign judgments. A foreign judgment must first be recognised by an execution judgment of a Japanese court before those procedures become available.

So in Japan we proceed as follows

We establish where the person actually lives, and whether they are there in fact; where they work or what business they run, by observation on site rather than from a record; the registry entries for companies they represent and for property at addresses already known; and the present state of the business or the assets. That gives Japanese counsel what is needed to begin the court-based procedures, and in an estate it gives the heirs what they need to apply for the registry certificate. Which procedure to use is for you and Japanese counsel to decide.

We say where the line is before work begins, and we bring the matter to the point where the next legal step can be taken.

Matter types

The matters we are asked about most

The size of the need is not found in outside statistics. It is the number of matters in your own files that were declined, or closed part-way, because part of them was abroad. Open a heading to see what we confirm for each type.

Estates and cross-border family matters

Verification of a deceased's assets abroad. Locating heirs and beneficiaries, confirming proof of life and obtaining the supporting documents needed where a person cannot be found. Confirming the identity of heirs, including civil-status documents from the home country. Confirming the wishes of heirs who live abroad. A child's whereabouts, living environment and schooling after a move abroad. The other spouse's residence, employment and family circumstances in the home country.

Sample report C: Heir search and proof of life for an overseas estate (Japan)

Recovery and enforcement

Groundwork before recognition, enforcement and interim measures in respect of a foreign judgment. The judgment debtor's whereabouts, employment and business, and the title and encumbrances of assets already known. Material showing that assets exist and may be dissipated, for use in an application for interim relief. Tracing transfers made before and after judgment. What can be established differs by country, and is stated before work begins.

Sample report B: Pre-enforcement groundwork on a judgment debtor (Japan)

Sample report H: A judgment debtor's assets across the border (Malaysia and Singapore)

Corporate and cross-border transactions

Credit decisions on, and the operating reality of, overseas counterparties. Pre-deal due diligence on the target, its shareholders and beneficial owners. Asset and business enquiries ahead of recovery abroad. Misconduct by local employees, distributors and joint venture partners. Commercial fraud abroad. The litigation and sanctions history of a contracting party. Identifying shell companies.

Sample report D: Operating reality and management background before a deal (Korea)

Sample report G: Shell-company check before a manufacturing contract (Vietnam)

Intellectual property

On-site confirmation of trade mark and copyright infringement. Test purchases with a record of the purchase; identifying the outlets, the manufacturer and the distributors; comparing registry entries with actual operations; tracing the supply route. Evidence usable for injunctions, damages claims and criminal complaints.

Private wealth

Estates and matrimonial property involving assets abroad. Tracing assets moved overseas at the time of a divorce or succession. Clarifying holding structures that run through overseas companies and holding companies, and identifying the beneficial owner. Tracing the holding and movement of virtual assets, and confirming where withdrawals went and who is connected with them. The reality of overseas affiliates and overseas directors in a business succession.

Sample report E: Beneficial control and asset structure of a family-run company (Taiwan)

KYC, sanctions and adverse information

Whether an overseas counterparty, investee or joint venture partner has links to organised crime, including the “anti-social forces” check used in Japanese transactions. Screening against sanctions and regulatory lists in each country. The career, litigation history, administrative sanctions and media record of directors and beneficial owners. Whether the business is actually trading at its address, confirmed on site.

Insurance claims

Death, accident and hospitalisation claims arising in Asia. Whether the event took place. Whether the death certificate and the medical and police records are genuine, confirmed with the offices that issued them on the basis of the claimant's authorisation. The circumstances at the scene. The identity of the beneficiary and the relationship to the insured. Findings are reported with their sources, so that the claims decision remains yours.

Sample report F: Verifying a death reported abroad for a life insurance claim (Indonesia)

General civil matters with a party abroad

Traffic accidents, divorce and child support, unpaid wages and employment, rent arrears and reinstatement, trade debts and loans. Matters in which the other party has left for Japan, Korea or Southeast Asia and their whereabouts, address for service and assets are all unknown. Once the person is located, both the engagement and the recovery can begin to move.

Sample report A: Locating a defendant for service of process (Japan)

Work on cross-border family matters is confined to establishing facts for proceedings conducted by counsel. TGI takes no part in the handover, retrieval or relocation of a child, and does not approach the other party or the child to persuade them.

Sources

What we look for, where, and how it is reported

For each subject of enquiry, the main route by which information is obtained and the form in which it is reported are set out below. Information is obtained through public records, lawful requests to the offices that hold them, fieldwork and interviews, within the law of the country concerned, including its data protection law. Feasibility is confirmed for each matter before work begins.

Real estate and land: local land registries → source documents with translation
Entities, shareholders and officers: official company registries → source documents with translation
Beneficial ownership: comparison of several sources → fact and analysis recorded separately
Whereabouts and residence: fieldwork → field report and photographs
Employment and business operations: open sources and on-site confirmation → fact and analysis recorded separately
Litigation and insolvency: public records → source documents with translation
Connected persons: local enquiries → marked as analysis

Reports separate established fact (with its source and the route by which it was obtained, and source documents attached where possible), analysis drawn from comparing several sources, and assessment for the purposes of the matter. What could not be established is recorded too, with the reason. The layout can be seen in the sample reports.

Partners

Working as your local partner in Asia

Investigation, due diligence and probate research firms use TGI as their people on the ground. The terms below apply as a matter of course.

What you can rely on

Your client remains your client. We do not approach your client or accept instructions from them, during the engagement or after it.
Your instructions, your confidentiality terms. We work to your scope and sign your non-disclosure agreement or ours.
Reports under your cover, if you wish. Findings can be delivered for inclusion in your own report, with sources and photographs supplied separately.
The same sourcing standard. Every fact carries its source and the route by which it was obtained, so that you can stand behind it.
A conflict check before we accept. If we cannot act, we say so at once.
Fixed fees per task. Address verification, registry retrieval, a site visit, an interview: each is quoted in advance, so that you can quote your own client with confidence.

Continuity

From Japan across Asia, as one continuous engagement

Matters involving Japan often begin with whereabouts, assets and circumstances in Japan and then lead on to assets or people in Korea, Taiwan or Southeast Asia. Because TGI has its own field unit in Japan and long-standing teams across the region, the work continues without being handed from one agency to another. Information is not lost in between, costs are not duplicated, and responsibility stays in one place.

The centre of our practice is Asia.

Japan: Trust Japan. Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia: established local teams under its direction. Taiwan, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Malaysia: UIC Associates. Outside Asia: long-standing partners. For the structure in detail, see About TGI.

Verify first. Decide after.

How far can this matter be taken?

Tell us the country, the subject, what is already known and what needs to be established. Feasibility is answered, as a rule, within three business days; method, cost and time are set out in a form you can put to the client as it stands. An outline is enough; the client's name is not needed.

Free pre-engagement enquiry View process and fees