Best Prop Firms for Traders in Japan, FSA Checks and Yen Payouts

Key takeaways

We checked 22 prop firms on October 6, 2026 for traders in Japan and ranked 16 forex and futures products, plus one crypto-only product, by cost per $1,000 of loss room at $50K or the yen plan nearest it.

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We checked 22 prop firms on October 6, 2026 for traders in Japan and ranked 16 forex and futures products, plus one crypto-only product, by cost per $1,000 of loss room at $50K or the yen plan nearest it. Topstep is cheapest at $47.50 ($95 a month), then ThinkCapital Nexus at $49.75 (fee-only), E8 Markets E8 Pro 10% at $49.80 with yen paid through WorkMarket, FundingPips 2 Step Flex at $49.83 (fee-only) and Alpha Capital Group Alpha Pro 10% at $53.40, the firm that names Japan at checkout. The cheapest yen-priced plan is Funded7 Two Phase at ¥59,000 for ¥10,000,000 (59.00 per 1,000); Fintokei and Tokyo-managed Fundora also price in yen and pay yen by domestic bank transfer, and both publish a 特定商取引法 seller notice. SabioTrade and Alpha Funded name Japan on their own restricted lists, AquaFunded allows Japan only on instant accounts up to $50K, ATFunded has paused operations, and Apex Trader Funding and Take Profit Trader are checked but not ranked. The FSA warning list, re-checked on October 6, 2026, names none of the 22 firms; HyroTrader’s exchange partner Bybit is on it. Fintokei’s terms bar criticism including online reviews, and Funded7’s restrict posting its messages on review sites. Yen figures use the October 2, 2026 ECB cross of 1 USD = ¥157.67.

Checked: October 6, 2026 for firm pages and the FSA warning list. Firms change prices, codes and country lists without notice, so confirm on the firm’s own page before paying. Each Trustpilot figure shows its own read date.

Quick answer and the top five prop firms in Japan

Japan is on almost no large prop firm’s restricted list, so the usual country question is easy and the real questions sit elsewhere: whether a product is carved out for Japan, what the FSA’s warning list shows, whether you can pay and be paid in yen, and what the terms say about posting a review. Ranked on what you pay for each $1,000 (or each ¥1,000) the account can lose, these five come first:

1. Topstep Trading Combine, No Activation Fee: $47.50 per $1,000. Price $95/month (about ¥15,000); floor $2,000, end-of-day trailing.
2. ThinkCapital Nexus 3-step: $49.75 per $1,000. Price $199 (about ¥31,400); floor $4,000, static (8%).
3. E8 Markets E8 Pro 10%: $49.80 per $1,000. Price $249 (about ¥39,300); floor $5,000, static, both stages.
4. FundingPips 2 Step Flex: $49.83 per $1,000. Price $299 (about ¥47,100); floor $6,000, static (12%).
5. Alpha Capital Group Alpha Pro 10%: $53.40 per $1,000. Price $267 (about ¥42,100); floor $5,000, static, both stages.

ThinkCapital’s and FundingPips’ figures rest on activation fees the firms do not publish either way, and Topstep’s covers one month of a monthly bill. On fully published one-time prices the lowest is E8 Markets, which also has the clearest yen payout among dollar-priced firms. If you would rather pay in yen, Funded7, Fintokei and Fundora sell yen plans and pay yen to a Japanese bank. For the same checks in neighbouring markets, see our guides to the best prop firms for traders in Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

What a prop firm is for traders in Japan

A prop firm, in the sense these 22 firms use the word, sells you an evaluation on a simulated account. You trade to a profit target without touching a daily or overall loss limit; pass, and you trade a funded account that is usually still simulated, and the firm pays you a share of the simulated profit, typically 80% to 90%. That is different from a domestic FX broker, which holds your own money in a real account, and from institutional proprietary trading: some search results for prop trading in Japan point to a broker’s account offer for trading companies, such as Interactive Brokers Securities Japan’s proprietary trading group accounts, which is a brokerage service for firms, not an evaluation you can buy. For the basics, see what a prop firm is.

• For: your loss is capped at the fee, you can trade a $50,000 account for $95 to $379 or a ¥10,000,000 account for ¥59,000 to ¥69,800, most firms here pay 80% or more of profit, and three firms pay yen to a Japanese bank.
• Against: most buyers never reach a payout, a broken daily limit ends most accounts at once, the funded account is simulated, most payouts arrive in dollars unless a processor converts them, several firms keep a mandatory live move, and two firms restrict what you may say about them in public.

Every ranked firm describes its funded accounts as simulated or demo. FTMO says its traders trade with simulated capital only, Fintokei’s Japanese site calls its accounts demo accounts, and HyroTrader says there is no real-capital stage at any point. A few keep a live stage behind a discretionary move, covered in each firm’s section below.

Is prop trading legal in Japan, and what the FSA publishes about prop firms

We do not give a legal verdict, and we found no FSA page that gives one on prop firms. Japan has no licence written for prop firm evaluations, and none of the 22 firms checked claims an FSA registration. What the Financial Services Agency does publish is a warning list, 無登録で金融商品取引業を行う者の名称等について (names of persons conducting financial instruments business without registration). The page says “無登録で金融商品取引業を行っているとして、金融庁(財務局)が警告書の発出を行った者の名称等を掲載しています。” (it lists persons the FSA or a Local Finance Bureau sent a warning letter for conducting financial instruments business without registration) and adds “掲載されていない者でも、無登録営業に該当する行為を行っていることがあり得ますのでご注意ください。” (a person not listed may still be doing so).

We pulled the combined list from fsa.go.jp on October 6, 2026: 1,155 entries, updated September 25, 2026. We searched it, in full-width and half-width letters, for every firm in this guide, every domain it uses, its companies and its payout processors and partners.

None of the entries names any firm in this guide. One names a trading venue: Bybit Fintech Limited, service name Bybit, listed in June 2021, which runs the exchange behind one of HyroTrader’s challenge routes; the HyroTrader section explains what that means. Another names a firm’s commercial partner rather than the firm: Tradexfin Limited, whose service the list names as XMTRADING, was warned on August 21, 2020, and Funded7 announced a rebate partnership with XM in 2026 for clients’ own deposits at XM; the entry does not name Funded7. One entry only looks related: Apex mkt Ltd, listed in February 2024 for a service called Ventorus, is a different company from Apex Trader Funding.

Firms’ own positions are claims, not FSA findings. Fintokei’s terms state that its service is not an OTC derivative transaction and is not regulated under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, and Fundora says “Fundoraは、デモ環境を用いたトレーダー向けの学習・評価サービスであり、証券会社やFX会社ではありません。” (Fundora is a learning and evaluation service run on demo accounts, not a securities or FX company). Neither statement comes from the FSA. On the FSA’s register of financial instruments business operators (as at August 31, 2026), none of the firms we searched appears, including Fundora’s Tokyo company Quantum Fund Traders, which is a registered Japanese company but not an FSA registrant. For firms that do hold a licence somewhere, see our guide to regulated prop firms.

Which prop firms accept traders in Japan

We read each firm’s own restricted-countries page, terms, help article or checkout for Japan, in Japanese where the firm has a Japanese site. Japan is rarely named, so the wording around it matters. Six groups come out:

• Japan named as accepted: Alpha Capital Group lists Japan in its checkout country menu, Fintokei names it on its list of countries that can take crypto payouts, and Fundora sells yen plans to customers in Japan.
• Missing from a named list with no “including” wording: Topstep, E8 Markets, FundedNext, Funded7, Goat Funded Trader, The5ers, Lucid Trading, FTMO, Tradeify and My Funded Futures.
• Missing from a list worded “including” or “not limited to”, or with a second list not published: ThinkCapital, FundingPips and HyroTrader. They rank, but their wording leaves room for a country they have not named.
• Open only on some products: AquaFunded allows only Instant Funding up to $50,000. It ranks on the product you can actually buy.
• Named as restricted: SabioTrade and Alpha Funded.
• Not on sale: ATFunded has paused operations.

A directory flag is not a pass: one comparison site’s Japan restricted-countries page listed no firms at all when we checked, while AquaFunded, SabioTrade and Alpha Funded each name Japan on their own pages. Each firm also tests something different, which matters if you are a Japanese national living abroad or one of Japan’s many foreign residents:

Travel clauses differ too. Goat Funded Trader’s list turns on where you are, My Funded Futures blocks new purchases and resets while you are in a listed country, and Tradeify says a resident travelling can keep trading. Several of Japan’s neighbours are on these lists, so a trip to Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea or Vietnam can matter more than your home address.

How prop firm payouts reach a Japanese bank in yen

Three firms pay yen on a route they name themselves. Fintokei and Fundora pay by domestic bank transfer (国内銀行送金), and Funded7 sends yen from its Revolut business account to a Japanese bank or to your Revolut account. Two more, E8 Markets and Lucid Trading, pay through WorkMarket, whose own fee table has a Japan row for a bank account paid in yen at ¥651 a transfer plus 2-3% conversion. Most of the rest pay dollars into Rise, whose help page lists Japan for yen withdrawals to a local bank; Rise says “The withdrawal fee is $10, and the maximum timeframe is 2 business days”. The conversion is done by Rise, not by the firm.

The rest send dollars or euros and let your bank convert them. Topstep’s only route to Japan is a $30 international wire, FTMO’s bank wire names no currency, Take Profit Trader pays by Wise or PayPal with no Japan line, and HyroTrader pays only in USDT or USDC. ThinkCapital’s Japanese site says payouts are currently made in crypto, and its transfer route to a ThinkMarkets account names Japan as excluded. Fees add up before the conversion: The5ers takes 3.5% of every payout, Goat Funded Trader and AquaFunded 3%, FundedNext up to 3.5%, Topstep $30 per wire and ThinkCapital $50 a month for Rise payouts. E8 Markets, FTMO, Fintokei and HyroTrader charge no fee of their own, and Funded7 says it pays the sending cost. For how each rail works across firms, see prop firms that pay by wire, bank, Rise, Deel or Wise.

A worked example: a $2,000 payout through Rise at a firm with no fee of its own arrives as about ¥315,300 at the October 2 rate, less Rise’s $10 and whatever margin Rise builds into the conversion. The same payout at a firm that takes 3% first loses $60 before Rise sees it. Through WorkMarket the same ¥315,300 costs ¥651 plus 2-3% conversion, roughly ¥6,900 to ¥10,100 in all. Large yen amounts have their own catch at Fintokei, whose help page warns “報酬額が大きい場合、国内の銀行口座を指定でも海外送金で処理させていただく場合があります。” (large rewards may be sent as an international transfer even to a domestic account), with receiving-bank fees then on you.

Yen-priced prop firm plans in Japan and consumption tax

Four firms sell plans priced in yen, so you can avoid a card conversion when you buy. Same measure as the main ranking, at the yen size nearest $50,000 that each firm sells:

Notes on this table: ^* No activation fee is published either way, so the figure is the plan price alone. Dollar figures use 1 USD = ¥157.67. Funded7’s pay-as-you-go version of the same ¥10,000,000 plan also totals ¥59,000, billed in three stages. Fundora’s larger Standard plan (¥99,999 for ¥20,000,000) works out at 50.00 but is about $126,800 of balance, far from $50,000.

Consumption tax is where the pages differ. Fintokei labels its yen prices 税込 (tax included). Fundora’s seller notice says “サービス（プラン）の購入に際して、消費税が発生いたします。” (consumption tax is incurred when you buy a plan), but its plan page shows a bare ¥66,999, so ask before paying whether tax is added. Funded7 and ThinkCapital show yen prices with no tax wording at all. Pay-in methods follow the same split: Fintokei shows JCB among its card logos, and Fundora accepts yen bank transfer through GMO Payment Gateway as well as cards.

Only Fintokei and Fundora publish the Japanese seller notice under the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions (特定商取引法に基づく表記). Fintokei’s names Fintokei a.s. in Brno, Czech Republic, and allows a refund within two weeks only if you have not logged in to its client zone and traded. Fundora’s names Quantum Fund Traders株式会社 in Toranomon, Tokyo, and allows no cancellation or refund after purchase. Funded7 and ThinkCapital sell in yen without one. The notice is a seller disclosure; it is not a licence and it does not change a firm’s rank here.

How we checked prop firms for Japan

1. Read each firm’s own restricted-countries page, terms, help article or checkout for Japan, product by product, in Japanese where the firm has a Japanese site, and note whether the list is called complete and what it tests.
2. Treat a brand’s forex, futures and crypto arms as separate listings, and keep crypto-only products apart.
3. Price every $50K variant, and every yen plan nearest $50K, that a Japan resident can buy at list price, add any activation fee, and show yen at the October 2, 2026 ECB cross; codes go in the firm notes only.
4. Divide by the smallest overall loss limit at any stage, never a daily limit or a per-trade rule, and multiply by 1,000.
5. Search the FSA’s full warning list for each firm, domain, company and partner, then note the payout routes that reach a Japanese bank, the seller notice, live stage terms, review clauses and Trustpilot.

Prop firms in Japan ranked by cost per $1,000 of loss room

Lower is better. A $2,000 floor at $95 and a $6,000 floor at $299 both cost under $50 for each $1,000 you are allowed to lose, which is the comparison that matters if you expect to buy more than once.

Notes on this ranking: Cost per $1,000 is the list price of the firm’s cheapest product at $50,000, or its yen plan nearest $50,000, that a resident of Japan can buy, plus any activation fee, divided by the smallest overall loss limit at any stage, times 1,000. The ratio is the same whether you count in yen or dollars, so a yen plan’s figure compares directly with a dollar plan’s. Daily loss limits and per-trade or per-position rules (Alpha Capital Group’s 2% Max Risk Rule, AquaFunded’s floating-loss policy, Fundora’s 1% risk per entry) are not used; they are named as watch-outs. Yen figures convert at the European Central Bank reference cross of October 2, 2026, 1 USD = ¥157.67, rounded to the nearest ¥100; your card or bank rate will differ. FTMO is the only firm here that states its fee in euros, converted at EUR/USD 1.1225. Ties share a rank. ^a Monthly billing: the figure covers one 30-day cycle. A second month at $95 would make it $95.00 per $1,000, behind every product in this table except AquaFunded. ^b ThinkCapital publishes no activation fee for Nexus and does not say there is none, so $199 is the evaluation fee alone; a fee above $0.20 would drop it below E8 Markets. Its restricted list says “not limited to”, so Japan is missing from a list the firm does not call complete. On its Japanese site the same Nexus plan sells at ¥32,500 for ¥8,000,000, ¥640,000 of room, 50.78 per 1,000. ^c FundingPips publishes no activation or Master fee either way, so $299 is the evaluation fee alone; a fee above $21.40 would drop it below Alpha Capital Group. Its terms bar residents of jurisdictions “including” those on FATF and sanctions lists; Japan is a FATF member and on no FATF list. ^d FundedNext does not name an activation fee for Stellar Lite and does not say there is none; a fee above $6.01 would drop it below Funded7. ^e Funded7 is priced in yen on its Japanese site: ¥59,000 for a ¥10,000,000 account (about $63,421) with ¥1,000,000 of static room. The ratio is the same in either currency, ¥59,000 / ¥1,000,000 x 1,000 = 59.00. Funded7 shows no consumption-tax wording beside the price. ^f The5ers’ High Stakes $50K size table shows an 8% overall loss ($4,000) while its FAQ says 10% ($5,000). We rank on the tighter figure; on the FAQ figure it would be $49.80, level with E8 Markets. ^g Fintokei’s cards say one-time fee with no activation line, but the firm never states that nothing else is due, so the figure is fee-only; a fee above $6.00 would put it behind Fundora. Its yen plan with the same rules, ¥69,800 tax included for ¥10,000,000, works out at 69.80. ^h Fundora is priced in yen: ¥66,999 for ¥10,000,000 (about $424.92 for $63,421), the yen plan nearest $50K. Its seller notice says consumption tax is incurred on purchase, and the plan page does not say whether ¥66,999 includes it. Its US dollar Growth plan ($444 for $66,666) works out at $66.60, but Fundora charges it in yen at an exchange rate it does not publish. ⁱ Lucid’s store lists LucidFlex 50K at $136; the plan card itself now says “Get final price at checkout”. The $146 the card showed a day earlier would make it $73.00. ^j FTMO states its fee in euros: €319 x 1.1225 = $358.08. Tradeify is only 1.2% dearer, so a move of that size in the euro would swap them. FTMO’s 2-Step Challenge (€345, about $387.26, static floor, fee refunded with the first reward) works out at $77.45. ^k AquaFunded names Japan among countries that may trade only its Instant Funding models, up to $50,000 per trader, so its cheaper evaluations are closed to you. It publishes no activation fee for the instant account either way, so $278.67 is the account price alone.

Japan checks for each prop firm, same order

The currency your account is held in, how the money comes back to a Japanese bank and at what cost, what the FSA’s warning list shows, Japanese support and seller notice, and the Trustpilot standing. Same order as the ranking.