How to Issue Receipts from a Shopify Store in Japan
How do customers get a receipt from a Shopify store?
Shopify emails customers an order confirmation and shows the order on its order status page, but its help describes no receipt (領収書) to download, apart from EU and UK VAT invoices. When a customer in Japan asks for a receipt in their company’s name, merchants issue one by hand, from a Shopify Order Printer template, or with an app.
Note: The Shopify settings and labels on this page were checked against Shopify’s help documentation, and the legal points against the National Tax Agency (国税庁) and the laws on e-Gov, on 14 October 2026.
A customer buying for work may need a receipt addressed to their company, with a line saying what the money was for, to claim the expense. If you’re registered for the Invoice System, a business customer may also want that receipt to be a qualified invoice (適格請求書).
Does an online shop have to issue receipts?
Yes, an online shop must give a receipt when the customer asks. Japan’s Civil Code (民法), Article 486, lets anyone who pays ask the person paid for a receipt (受取証書) in exchange for the payment. It also lets them ask for the receipt as an electronic record, unless that would put an unreasonable burden on the seller (Civil Code on e-Gov).
Tax law adds a second duty for registered businesses. A registered qualified invoice issuer must give a qualified invoice when a taxable business buyer asks for one (NTA Q&A 23). A receipt can be that qualified invoice, because the National Tax Agency says the document’s name doesn’t matter as long as it carries the listed items (NTA: the Invoice System). Both laws provide for receipts as data: the Civil Code lets the customer ask for one, and the Consumption Tax Act lets you give a qualified invoice as data instead of paper, by email or through a website (NTA Q&A 31).
What should a receipt show?
A Japanese receipt shows who it’s addressed to, what the payment was for, the date, the amount and who issued it; if you’re registered, it also needs the items of a qualified invoice. The third column below is customary; the fourth is what the Invoice System adds.
| Part | Japanese | What to write | For a qualified invoice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recipient | 宛名 | The customer’s name with 様, or a company’s name with 御中 | The buyer’s name is required, unless it’s a simplified qualified invoice |
| What it was for | 但し書き | A short line such as 「お品代として」 (for goods) | The items sold, with reduced-rate items marked |
| Date | 日付 | The day you were paid | The transaction date |
| Amount | 金額 | The total paid, tax included | The total for each tax rate, and the tax for each rate (or, on a simplified one, the rate) |
| Issuer | 発行者 | Your business name and address | Your name and registration number (登録番号) |
Source: NTA: the Invoice System and NTA Q&A 58 (checked 14 October 2026).
Two points matter most for a shop selling food or anything else at two rates. The receipt has to make clear which items were taxed at the reduced 8% rate (軽減税率), for example with ※ and a note, and it has to give the totals for 8% and 10% separately. The full list, the rounding rule and the simplified version are in what a qualified invoice must show.
Retail shops have an easier option. A business that sells at retail may give a simplified qualified invoice (適格簡易請求書), which can leave out the buyer’s name, and the NTA says retail sales qualify in whatever form they’re made (NTA Q&A 24). A business customer may still ask for its company’s name on the receipt, so be ready to add it.
Does a PDF receipt need a revenue stamp?
On the National Tax Agency’s reasoning, a PDF receipt needs no revenue stamp. Stamp duty (印紙税) applies to the documents listed in the Stamp Tax Act, and the NTA says electronic records are not documents. It gave that answer for an order acknowledgement sent by email (NTA: electronic records sent by email). Applied to a receipt that exists only as a PDF, the same reasoning means no stamp.
A paper receipt is different. A receipt for sales proceeds of 50,000 yen or more is a taxable document, so a paper one you print and post needs a revenue stamp (収入印紙): 200 yen for an amount up to 1 million yen, more above that (NTA tax answer 7105). If you send PDFs for most orders and paper only on request, ask your tax accountant (税理士) how to handle the paper ones.
What can Shopify do on its own?
Shopify confirms the order and shows it to the customer, and its free Shopify Order Printer app can print a receipt from a template you write; Shopify’s help describes no built-in way for a customer to issue a receipt in their company’s name.
- The order confirmation. Shopify sends the Order confirmation notification when a customer places an order (Shopify: customer notifications). It’s an email, not a receipt with a 宛名 or a 但し書き.
- The order status page. A customer who signs in to their account can see their orders and the order status page with the order’s details (Shopify: customer accounts).
- Shopify Order Printer. Its templates are written in HTML, CSS and Liquid, and Shopify names receipts among the documents you can build (Shopify: creating templates). You’d add the customer’s company name and the 但し書き to each receipt yourself, save it as a PDF with your browser’s print function, and email it.
- Shopify POS. In a shop, POS prints, emails or texts a receipt at the till (Shopify: POS receipts).
- VAT invoices. These attach to the order status page, but only for orders shipped to the European Union or the United Kingdom (Shopify: VAT invoices).
For a few requests a month, a Shopify Order Printer template and an email reply are enough. Each customer who wants a different name on the receipt adds work.
How can customers issue their own receipt?
Customers can issue their own receipt through an app that adds a block to Shopify’s thank-you page and order status page. Shopify lets apps add blocks to those two pages on the Basic Shopify plan or higher; you place them in the checkout and accounts editor under Settings → Checkout (Shopify: checkout and accounts apps).
Ori, which we build, does this on its Standard and Pro plans (Ori’s plans). Once you turn it on, a customer fills in a short form and downloads a numbered receipt, and it is kept in Ori’s archive like any document you issue.
- In Ori, go to Sending → Customer self-issue and turn on Enable customer self-issue. Choose whether customers may edit the recipient name and the line description, and whether to Allow reissue.
- Choose Add the block in the checkout editor and place Ori’s Issue a receipt block on the thank-you page and its View and reissue documents block on the order status page. Nothing shows to customers until both steps are done.
- The customer enters a Recipient name, picks an Honorific (様 (for individuals), 御中 (for organizations) or None) and a Line description (For goods, For books, For food and drink or Enter your own), then chooses Issue receipt and Download PDF. For goods prints 「お品代として」 on the receipt.
What the customer can and can’t do:
- Customers issue receipts only. If you tick Invoice under Eligible documents, they can also download invoices you have already issued for their order.
- Each order gets one receipt; asking again returns the same one.
- The order must be paid. Fully refunded orders can’t get a receipt.
- A guest can issue a receipt for 48 hours after ordering; after that, only a customer signed in to their account can.
- Ori sends no email when a customer issues a receipt: they download it.
The setup, step by step, is in let customers issue their own receipts.
Tip: Ori, which prints Japan’s qualified-invoice items on every order’s documents, lets customers issue a numbered receipt in their company’s name from the thank-you or order status page.
How do you change the name on a receipt?
To change the name on a receipt, replace it rather than issuing a second one beside it, so the customer doesn’t end up with two valid receipts for one payment. If the receipt was a qualified invoice and an item on it was wrong, the law asks you to give the buyer a corrected one (NTA Q&A 32).
In Ori’s admin, Reissue prints a receipt again unchanged, under the same number, and can’t change the name, honorific or line description. To change it yourself, Void the receipt with a reason and issue a new one from the order, which takes the next number; the voided one stays in the archive. If you’ve turned on Allow reissue and Allow editing the recipient name, the customer can reissue their own receipt with a new name from the order status page: it keeps its number, the new PDF is marked as reissued, and the earlier PDF is kept. The details are in change the name on an issued receipt.
With a receipt from Shopify Order Printer or written by hand, mark the new one as a reissue (再発行) and give the original date, so the two can’t be mistaken for two payments.
Frequently asked questions
Can I write 上様 on a receipt?
You can, but 上様 names nobody. A full qualified invoice must show the buyer’s name; a simplified one may leave it out (NTA Q&A 58). If a business customer asks for its company’s name, write that name. Ori treats a receipt addressed to 上様 the same as one with no name.
Can a customer get a second receipt?
A customer who lost a receipt can be given a copy, marked as a reissue. For a simplified qualified invoice given at the sale, the NTA says you’ve met the duty to issue it and needn’t issue it again; if you never gave one, the duty remains (NTA Q&A 24-5). In Ori, a customer who asks again gets the same receipt, not a second number, and the admin’s Reissue prints it again under the same number.
Is a receipt a qualified invoice?
A receipt is a qualified invoice when a registered business issues it and it carries the listed items: the National Tax Agency says the name on the document doesn’t matter. A receipt without your registration number, or without the total for each rate, is an ordinary receipt. See what a qualified invoice must show and how to set the 8% reduced rate so the rates on it are right.
