[1-Minute Overview] Can You Really Sell on BASE as an Individual, Without Worry?
When people start thinking about selling handmade goods or running a side business, the first thing that stops many of them in their tracks is a simple worry: "Will I have to publish my real name and home address?" Running an online store tends to sound like something reserved for registered companies or sole proprietors, but in reality, BASE lets an individual open a shop in just a few minutes — and you can run it while protecting your privacy within certain limits.
Here's the short answer: on BASE, you can hide your "address" and "phone number" from the legally required seller disclosure, and when you do, BASE Inc.'s own information is displayed in their place. On top of that, if you use the "Easy Shipping (Yamato Transport integration) App" when sending out orders, you can ship products without revealing your name, address, or phone number on the shipping label. That said, your name is the one thing that can never be hidden under any circumstances — this is a legal rule designed to protect consumers, and there's no way around it.
This article walks through the benefits of selling on BASE as an individual, the concrete steps for hiding your legally required disclosure information, how to make the most of anonymous shipping, and what to keep in mind about sales record-keeping when it comes time to file your taxes — all organized from a practical standpoint, so that anyone considering a side hustle or personal sales venture can take that first step with confidence.
The Benefits of Selling on BASE as an Individual or Side Business
BASE isn't popular with individuals and side-hustlers just because it's easy to set up. To start, opening a shop is free, and you can run it within the bounds of payment processing fees and a modest monthly cost, which means you can start with minimal inventory risk. For makers of handmade goods or anyone selling apparel or miscellaneous items on the side, being able to keep initial costs low is a major advantage.
Another point worth noting is that BASE's screening and operating structure are built around the assumption that individuals will use the platform. If you register under the "individual" category, you gain access to the address and phone number privacy settings described below — a level of flexibility that business-oriented services simply don't offer. Whether it's an employee running a shop on the side, or a stay-at-home parent or student selling items in their spare time, BASE's design philosophy lines up well with the need to try your hand at selling products while keeping your main job or daily life intact.
That said, if you lean too heavily into anonymity and keep your disclosed information to an absolute minimum, you risk undermining buyers' trust. Even as an individual seller, carefully spelling out your business hours, estimated shipping times, and return policy — and cultivating a shop that feels safe to buy from — is what builds long-term loyal customers.
[Important] How to Hide Your Legally Required Disclosure Information
Japan's Specified Commercial Transactions Act requires any business conducting mail-order or online sales to disclose information such as their name, address, and phone number. Even as an individual, once you're running an online store, you fall under this law and are, in principle, required to disclose all of this information. However, following guidance from Japan's Consumer Affairs Agency that takes individual sellers' circumstances into account, BASE has built in a feature that lets shops registered under the "individual" category hide their address and contact information.
To set this up, go to "Settings" in your dashboard, then "Information About Your Business," and select the option to hide each of the address and contact fields for your shop or place of business. Once hidden, BASE Inc.'s own address and contact information will appear in your shop's legal disclosure in their place. One important thing to keep in mind: even when these fields are hidden, you still need to enter accurate information in them. That's because BASE's own screening processes — for things like its Easy Payment service — require real information, and entering false details could put you in violation of BASE's terms of service.
As for your name, you're required to register the official name that appears on your identity verification documents — you can't substitute a phonetic reading or your shop name instead. The reason your name can't be hidden is straightforward: showing buyers who they're actually contracting with is considered essential from a consumer protection standpoint. It's worth accepting upfront that you can't reduce your privacy exposure to zero, but understanding that hiding just your address and phone number still meaningfully lowers your risk is a good place to start.
When You'll Still Need to Disclose Information, Even with Privacy Settings On
Even with these privacy settings turned on, there are situations where you'll still need to give buyers your actual address or contact information — for example, if a buyer requests a return or exchange. It's also worth understanding that delivery slips will list BASE Inc.'s information as the shop's registered address, which can create a mismatch between what happens in practice and what's shown on the page. On top of that, if a buyer pays through a deferred payment (buy-now-pay-later) service, the invoice they receive is designed to include a phone number as contact information — so it helps to remember that the scope of what gets disclosed can shift depending on the payment method a buyer chooses.
How to Make the Most of Anonymous Shipping (the Easy Shipping App and Similar Tools)
Even if you manage to hide your information from the legally required disclosure, your privacy protection is still incomplete if you have to write your home address and name on the shipping label when you actually send out a package. This is exactly the problem that BASE's "Easy Shipping (Yamato Transport integration) App" — an extended feature built in partnership with Yamato Transport — is designed to solve. A 2022 update added an anonymous shipping feature: for a fee of 50 yen (tax included) per item, you can now ship products without printing any personal information on the shipping label. For shops that have hidden their address from the legal disclosure, this anonymous shipping feature is designed to be turned on by default, giving you privacy protection on both fronts — what's shown on the page and what happens during the actual shipping process.
That said, even with anonymous shipping in place, there are cases where a buyer's return request means you'll have to share your actual address as the return destination, or the item simply won't come back to you. One option often suggested for avoiding this is using a virtual office. Contracting with a virtual office service lets you use an address and phone number different from your home for your legal disclosure and as your shipping origin, and some of these services will even receive packages on your behalf and forward them to your home. BASE partners with a virtual office service called "NAWABARI," which offers plans starting at around 1,100 yen a month.
If your business grows further, bringing in a fulfillment service is another option worth considering. Since a fulfillment service can replace your shipping origin address entirely with their own, combining this with your legal disclosure privacy settings lets you keep your home address hidden on both the page and the shipping label. If you're starting out as a side hustle but see the potential to grow it into a full business down the road, knowing about these options early on sets you up for sustainable growth without unnecessary strain.
What to Watch for When Managing Sales Records for Individual Tax Filing
Sales through BASE, even from a side business, can potentially be taxed as business income or miscellaneous income and become subject to tax filing requirements. If you're a salaried employee running a side business selling products, and your annual income from it exceeds a certain threshold, you'll need to file a tax return — so it's essential to keep your day-to-day sales and expenses recorded separately from the start. BASE's dashboard lets you check your sales and payout history, but it's also worth holding onto receipts and statements for expenses like shipping costs, packaging materials, and payment processing fees, since this makes tallying everything up at tax time much smoother.
One thing worth paying particular attention to: fees for anonymous shipping and virtual office services can potentially be recorded as business-related expenses. Since spending to protect your privacy can, in some cases, end up reducing your tax burden, it's worth organizing these from the bookkeeping stage as "costs incidental to your sales activity." If you're unsure about tax filing, it's a good idea to consult a tax accountant or your local tax office early on, including whether you need to file a business commencement notification as a sole proprietor — that way, once your business gets off the ground, you won't be caught scrambling.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q1. Can I hide my name completely on BASE?
A1. No. The Specified Commercial Transactions Act requires a business to disclose its name so that buyers know who they're actually contracting with — and this rule applies to every individual running an online store, not just those on BASE. You can hide your address and phone number, but it's important to factor in, when deciding whether to open a shop, that your name will always be disclosed.
Q2. If I use anonymous shipping, can I keep my identity completely hidden from buyers?
A2. You can anonymize the shipping label itself, but if a return or exchange comes up, you may need to share your actual return address. Depending on a package's size or weight, you may also need to share information directly with the shipping carrier. It's best to think of anonymous shipping as a way to keep your information private during the normal purchase process — not as an absolute guarantee of anonymity.
Q3. If I start selling on BASE as a side business, do I have to file a business commencement notification?
A3. Not necessarily right away. But if you plan to sell continuously and repeatedly, and expect your income to exceed a certain threshold, you may become subject to filing a business commencement notification and a tax return. If you're unsure, it's a good idea to consult your local tax office or a tax accountant early on and confirm the right approach for the scale of your side business.
Summary and Key Takeaways
What becomes clear from looking at how individual sellers operate on BASE is a practical kind of compromise: you can never erase your privacy exposure completely, but you can meaningfully reduce your risk through smart use of the platform's design. The combination of hiding your address and phone number from the legal disclosure, plus anonymous shipping, is a realistic middle ground built to satisfy both the legal requirement to protect consumers and an individual seller's desire to start selling with peace of mind. Disclosing your name is unavoidable, but if you carefully reduce risk everywhere else, taking that small first step into a side hustle or handmade sales business becomes something you can do without unnecessary strain.
Once you've gotten comfortable selling as an individual and your business starts to gain momentum, a new goal tends to come into view: reaching more customers, or even selling to fans overseas. At Leap, rather than simply translating a Japanese-language site, we build pages from the ground up that are tailored to local culture and search habits — helping businesses do web marketing that genuinely reaches overseas markets. From selling as an individual at home to taking that next step abroad, we'll keep sharing information suited to each stage of your business, so we hope you'll check out our other articles as well.
References
- Is There a Setup Manual for Specified Commercial Transactions Act Disclosures (Individuals)? - Help | BASE
- Can I Hide My Address from Buyers? - Help | BASE
- BASE, Inc. Press Release
- Anonymous Shipping Made Easy on BASE! How to Run an Online Store While Hiding Your Address and Phone Number
- You Can't Hide a Business Owner's Name on BASE — Only the Address and Contact Information
- How Personal Addresses Are Handled in Online Stores
- How Address Disclosure and Privacy Work on BASE
- How to Hide Your Address and Phone Number Under the Specified Commercial Transactions Act on BASE - Handmade Note
