'Haigyo Navi' Releases Business 'Liquidation Simulator' — AI Estimates Costs and Duration of Liquidation Simply by Inputting Assets, Liabilities, and Employee Count

Mycat Inc. (Headquarters: Meguro-ku, Tokyo) has released the "Liquidation Simulator," a tool that uses AI to estimate the costs and period required for business liquidation, within its business closure support service "Haigyo Navi" (https://haigyo.xyz). Tool URL: https://haigyo.xyz/tools/liquidation-simulator

### Voices Saying "I want to close down, but I don't know how much it will cost"
According to a survey by Tokyo Shoko Research, the number of corporate bankruptcies in 2025 exceeded 11,000, breaking the 10,000 mark for the first time in 11 years (Source: Tokyo Shoko Research 2025 Corporate Bankruptcy Status). Bankruptcies are "the result of a dead end in cash flow," but in the preceding stage, many business owners recognize that "it is difficult to continue the business, but they postpone it because they do not know how to proceed with the closure." In the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency's "White Paper on Small and Medium Enterprises 2024," "not knowing the costs required for closure" and "procedures are too complex to start" are cited as top challenges by managers considering closure (Source: SME Agency White Paper 2024). In reality, the dissolution and liquidation of a company involve a wide variety of costs, including registration fees, official gazette publication fees, tax return fees, remuneration for lawyers and tax accountants, severance pay for employees, and cancellation fees for remaining leases, making it difficult to grasp the total amount in advance.

### How the Liquidation Simulator Works
The Liquidation Simulator calculates an approximate estimate of the costs and procedure period required for liquidation simply by inputting basic business information.

**Input Items**
- Corporate entity type (Joint-stock company / LLC / Sole proprietorship)
- Recent sales scale (annual sales base)
- Approximate total assets and total liabilities
- Number of employees
- Main asset types (Real estate / Vehicles / Inventory / Accounts receivable / Equipment)
- Presence of lease contracts and remaining period
- Presence of borrowings and types of lenders (Banks / Japan Finance Corporation / Non-banks, etc.)

**Simulation Results**
Based on the input content, the following items are calculated as approximate values.
As legal procedure costs, it automatically calculates the registration and license tax for dissolution registration (30,000 yen), the registration and license tax for the completion of liquidation registration (2,000 yen), and the publication fee for the official gazette (from approx. 32,000 yen). These are procedures stipulated by the Companies Act and cannot be omitted in the liquidation of a joint-stock company (Source: Legal Affairs Bureau Commercial Registration Procedures).
For expert remuneration, it displays general remuneration levels for judicial scriveners (registration procedure agency), tax accountants (tax returns, liquidation final tax returns), and lawyers (when creditor response is required). This is only a standard guide and varies depending on individual cases.
As employee-related costs, it calculates severance pay (if there is a severance pay provision in the employment regulations), administrative costs associated with the loss of social insurance qualification and the issuance of separation certificates. It also determines the presence or absence of dismissal notice allowances (incurred if not notified 30 days in advance) (Source: Labor Standards Act Article 20).
For lease/contract-related items, it estimates the lump-sum repayment amount of lease balances, the cost of restoring the office to its original state, and cancellation penalty fees for various services (telephone, internet, software, etc.).
For the required period of procedures, it displays the overall schedule of the liquidation procedure, including the period of formal demand to creditors (minimum 2 months, Companies Act Article 499). Normally, it takes at least 3 to 4 months from the resolution of dissolution to the completion of liquidation, but if there is creditor response or disposal of real estate, it can take over a year.

### Usage Scene 1: Basis for deciding between business succession and closure
For SME managers without successors, "whether to hand over the business to someone else or close it down" is a major decision. By grasping the total cost of closure with the Liquidation Simulator and comparing it with the transfer price presented by M&A advisors, they can numerically judge which is more economically rational. According to the SME Agency, there will be about 2.45 million SMEs whose managers will be over 70 years old by 2025, and about half of them have not decided on a successor (Source: SME Agency Current Status of Business Succession). Since business value decreases as time passes, early decision-making is crucial.

### Usage Scene 2: Selection and concentration of multiple businesses
When a company developing multiple businesses considers withdrawing from an unprofitable business, it can estimate the liquidation cost per business unit. Comparing the cost of withdrawal with the cumulative loss of continuing the deficit serves as a basis for judging the timing of withdrawal. Since the procedures and costs differ between business transfer and company split, the simulator calculates rough estimates for business transfer cases in addition to liquidation for each corporate entity type.