Storage term by corporation law and corporation tax law

Companies have several ways to storage the documents, but each contract has storage term by corporation law and corporation tax law.

Expired or canceled contracts must be stored for 10 years

The contracts which have been expired or canceled must be stored for 10 years by the corporation law in Japan.
The term is 10 years from the date of the expiration or the cacelation of the contract.
You should not dispose the expired contracts right after the expiration and it's better to store them for 2 or 3 years addition to the storage term just in case.

Moreover, storing the contracts in print is basic, however, if you submit the application to the competent district director, you can store the contracts electronically.
However, even if you store the contracts electronically, there are no changes to the storage term.

Invoices and delivery documents must be stored for 7 years

Other than contract, invoice, bill and delivery document must be stored for 7 years by the corporation tax law.
The important documents, especially, should be stored permanently regardless of law.
If you know the storage term, you can efficiently manage the documents such as contracts.

How to dispose the contracts whose storage term have expired

When you dispose the contracts whose storage term have expired, you or the professionals you consign do that.
If you consign, in order to dispose them legally, you should conclude a consignment contract with professionals.
This consignment contract must be stored for 5 years from the expiration by law.
It's decided by the waste management and public cleaning law.

Other than contracts, there are many sorts of documents whose storage term are fixed by law.
It's better to check the expired documents periodically and dispose them.