Bypass Real Name Disclosure & 12-Person Testing: Organization Account Guide for Mobile App Developers in Japan

CAUTION

This article is primarily intended for those residing in Japan and registering as a sole proprietor under Japanese law.
For foreign nationals or those living outside Japan who wish to start an individual business in Japan, legal requirements differ including residence status (visa), presence of a physical office in Japan, capital requirements, and employment conditions. The process for submitting business opening notifications may also differ.

Starting a business in Japan as a foreigner requires specialized requirements such as obtaining a business management visa, so we strongly recommend consulting with experts depending on your situation.

Introduction

When releasing commercial Android/iOS mobile apps on official stores as an individual, typically your privacy information such as real name, address, and phone number will be publicly displayed on the store as the developer.
While this is a required display under the Specified Commercial Transactions Act and cannot be hidden, many people are uncomfortable with openly exposing personal information on the internet.
Furthermore, on Google Play, you must conduct closed testing with many third parties before app review begins, which requires significant effort and time.

This article introduces methods to solve these privacy issues and Google Play closed testing problems through organization accounts, based on my real experience (around October 2025).
While there are other articles on this topic, I couldn't find comprehensive guides that cover all the procedures needed for organization account registration from start to finish with proper background explanation, which motivated me to write this article based on my own struggles.

Target Audience

• Want to release mobile apps on official stores (App Store/Google Play)

• Want to minimize exposure of personal information like real name and address on store pages

• Want to skip the 12-person tester phase for app review (Google Play)

Two Benefits of Organization Accounts

Mobile apps are typically released through official stores like the App Store (iOS) and Google Play (Android), which require Apple and Google developer accounts.
These developer accounts come in two types: individual accounts and organization accounts. As mentioned above, organization accounts are generally more advantageous in terms of privacy protection and review processes.

1. Privacy Protection
With individual accounts, your real name will appear on the store page as the app developer. You cannot use a handle name or pseudonym - this is unavoidable.
With organization accounts, however, you can display your company name or business name as the developer instead of your real name.

For Google Play, addresses and phone numbers are also displayed on the store, but regardless of account type (individual or organization), you can secure privacy by registering a virtual office for the address and a secondary phone number for the phone number.
This article also covers contracting virtual offices and secondary phone numbers.

App Store YouTube app developer section (organization account display example)

Google Play YouTube app support section (organization account display example)

2. Simplified Review Process (Google)
On Google Play, individual accounts must go through closed testing with 12+ testers before they can finally proceed to main review.
Organization accounts are exempt from this testing and can proceed directly to main review. This benefit alone makes organization accounts worth considering.
For more details, see here.

Google Play's unreasonable requirement for individual accounts

To summarize points 1 and 2 in a simple table:

Organization Account Registration Requirements

The most solid approach is to register as a corporation, but establishing a corporation costs hundreds of thousands of yen upfront, plus ongoing maintenance costs that are not insignificant, making it unviable unless you have a certain level of revenue.
As an alternative, registering as a sole proprietor is the most accessible and cost-effective method.
This article aims to help you register for Apple/Google developer accounts as an organization account in your capacity as a sole proprietor.

WARNING

Apple officially states that sole proprietors should use individual accounts, so creating an organization account as a sole proprietor may be in a gray area.

Apple help page

The reminder that "sole proprietors should create individual accounts" appears not only on the help page but also multiple times during the organization account registration process.
However, currently there are many reported cases, including mine, where organization account creation (migration) review passes with sole proprietor documentation.
They clearly conduct human review, so this isn't exploiting a system loophole, but please proceed at your own risk with awareness that this deviates from Apple's recommendation.
※ On the other hand, Google has organization account requirements that reasonably allow sole proprietor registration, so you can confidently register.

Limitations of Privacy Protection

While organization accounts can protect privacy on store pages as mentioned above, under the Specified Commercial Transactions Act, in conclusion, sole proprietors are obligated to disclose "business operator name," "business office address," and "phone number".

In actual stores, likely utilizing the provisions for omitting advertising display items, particularly on the App Store, some information is concealed.

This only means "if you have a system to immediately provide business information upon user request, you can partially omit business operator display on advertising pages", so ultimately you must immediately disclose upon consumer request for business information, which you need to accept.

However, there's a huge difference between having your privacy information posted on busy streets versus requiring request effort to obtain it, so this article will definitely help protect your privacy.

Prerequisites

Before starting the procedures, you need to prepare the following two items.

My Number Card

My Number Card is mandatory for the procedures. It's required for electronic submission of business opening notifications and various e-Tax procedures.
If you don't have one, we strongly recommend getting it now for future use.

Credit Card

Credit card is required for paying Apple Developer Program and Google Play Console membership and registration fees.
Credit cards are also often required for contracting virtual offices and business phone numbers.

What You'll Obtain in This Article

The following table summarizes the items you'll obtain through the procedures in this article and their approximate costs.

NOTE

Virtual office and business phone number are optional.
However, if you don't contract these, your home address and personal phone number will be publicly displayed on store pages.

1. Virtual Office Contract (Optional)

Why You Need a Virtual Office

Google Play displays business office address on store pages. While the App Store doesn't display it, as mentioned in the Specified Commercial Transactions Act, you must provide the business office address upon user request.
To secure privacy of your home address, you need to contract a virtual office and register it as your business address.

Google Play YouTube app support section (organization account display example)

Service Selection

There are many virtual office services. Examples:

• GMO Office Support

• DMM Virtual Office

• Bloom

Plan Selection

Address rental needed to designate as a sole proprietor's business office is included in all plans, so choose according to your preference.
For reference, I contracted a "No corporate registration & Mail forwarding available" plan.

WARNING

"No mail forwarding" plans are cheaper, but risk important documents from tax authorities being discarded.
Recently, notifications arrive electronically via e-Tax, so some say forwarding is unnecessary, but I chose a mail forwarding plan as a safety measure just in case.

Contract Process

All services have user-friendly UIs to guide you through input and application, so I'll omit detailed steps.
As one point of caution, make sure to enter a business name (trade name).
You can change the business name later, but deciding now saves future hassle.

2. Obtaining Business Phone Number (Optional)

Why You Need a Business Phone Number

Google Play displays the developer's phone number on store pages. While the App Store doesn't display it, as mentioned in the Specified Commercial Transactions Act, you must provide the phone number upon user request.
To secure privacy of your personal phone number, you need to obtain a new business phone number.

Google Play YouTube app support section (organization account display example)

Plan Selection

If your only purpose is releasing mobile apps, unless you're releasing very special apps, your business phone number will rarely be used, so choose plans with minimum voice call and SMS features at the lowest monthly cost.
The following site is convenient for searching plans by sorting by "cheapest monthly fee" and filtering for voice call SIM & SMS support (SMS functionality is mandatory for organization account registration).

• Kakaku.com Voice Call & Phone-Enabled Budget SIM Card (MVNO/Carrier) Comparison & Plan List

Contract Method

As long as it's "Voice Call SIM & SMS Support", there are no special considerations, so follow the service's instructions to contract.
If your smartphone supports eSIM, it can be completed as soon as the same day.
For reference, I contracted with Japan Communications Simple 290 Plan (¥290/month).

3. Submitting Notification of Opening/Closure of Sole Proprietorship

Notification of Opening/Closure of Sole Proprietorship

Application for Approval of Blue Return for Income Tax

Why You Need to Open a Business

To register for Apple/Google organization accounts, you must prove you are a corporation or sole proprietor.
This article explains the approach of opening a sole proprietorship.

Service Selection

Submit your business opening notification using one of the following services (all free).
All services have user-friendly UIs to guide you through form input, so I'll omit detailed steps here and only touch on important considerations for the application.

• freee Opening (※ I used this to open my business)

• MoneyForward Cloud Business Opening Notification

• Yayoi Simple Business Opening Notification

• e-Tax Software (Technically the most official method, but not recommended due to poor usability)

Important Points for Document Creation

• Must set business name (trade name) (mandatory for organization account registration)

• Set business office address to the address specified by the virtual office

• Set business office phone number to the secondary phone number contracted for business use

Must set business name

NOTE

I went through hell updating my business name because I started my business without setting one. That's a story for another article.

Application for Approval of Blue Return for Income Tax

Depending on the service, you may be asked whether to optionally submit Application for Approval of Blue Return for Income Tax at the same time. In that case, there's no harm in submitting it, so go ahead and submit it.
If you're curious about the details, you can learn more here.

Confirming Receipt Notification

Within a few minutes of submission, you'll receive either a receipt notification or error notification in the Notifications & Receipts section of e-Tax (a system for online tax procedures).

Log in to e-Tax from the login button at the top right of e-Tax.

Notifications & Receipts

Select the Notifications & Receipts button.

Notifications & Receipts

If successfully received, a message titled "Notification of Opening/Closure of Sole Proprietorship" will have arrived, so open it. This notification contains the information needed for the next step.

Notifications & Receipts

4. Creating Business Opening Notification Copy (Organization Proof Documents)

Why You Need Organization Proof Documents

A copy of the business opening notification is required as organization proof during developer registration, but no copy is issued for online applications.
Instead, use the combined business opening notification form and electronic application proof data sheet downloadable from the receipt notification as proof documents.

Downloading Business Opening Notification Form

Open the receipt notification from the previous step.
From the "Display Form" button on the notification page, download ① Form for "Notification of Opening/Closure of Sole Proprietorship: 1 sheet".

Downloading form

Downloading Electronic Application Proof Data Sheet

Next, from the Electronic Application Certificate Issuance Request section below, download ② Electronic Application Proof Data Sheet converted to PDF accessible from "Go to Issuance Request Screen".
For PDF conversion, use your browser's "Print" function, or for Chrome, you can use an extension.

Electronic Application Certificate Issuance Request

Electronic Application Proof Data Sheet

Combining Business Opening Notification Form and Electronic Application Proof Data Sheet

Next, combine ① Notification of Opening/Closure of Sole Proprietorship form and ② PDF-converted Electronic Application Proof Data Sheet into one PDF.
Any combination method works, but Adobe's official PDF combining tool is reliable.

Use this as organization proof documents during organization account registration later.

NOTE

When I applied with just the business opening notification, I was rejected for "insufficient documentation" during organization account registration.
Therefore, combining the Electronic Application Proof Data Sheet is mandatory.
Note that as stated at the bottom of the Electronic Application Proof Data Sheet, the displayed portion doesn't serve as a certificate - the actual certificate content is contained in the XML. This information should be lost when converted to PDF, but somehow this method passes review, so let's go with it.

5. Domain Acquisition

Why You Need a Custom Domain

Presenting a business website with a custom domain is required during organization account registration. Also, in a later step (Step 8), a custom domain email address is needed.

I'll explain the process of acquiring a custom domain like "yukapero.com" on this site and building a website on that domain.

Cloudflare Registrar

While there are many services for acquiring domains, Cloudflare Registrar is recommended.
With Cloudflare, subsequent steps of "Website Construction~Deployment," "Route Configuration," and "Custom Domain Email Address Acquisition" can all be completed using only Cloudflare platform features, which is a major advantage.
Note that subsequent step explanations assume you're managing your domain with Cloudflare.

New Domain Registration Process

First, register as a new member from the Cloudflare official site.

Cloudflare official site

After registration is complete, use Cloudflare Registrar's domain search tool to check if your desired domain is available, then press the Purchase or Confirm button to buy it.

Domain search tool

Domain search results

After acquisition is complete, if the acquired domain appears in the domain list on the account home of the Cloudflare dashboard, you're all set.

Cloudflare dashboard

NOTE

Domain fees vary greatly depending on the top-level domain (the ending characters like .com or .jp).
Some cost $1/year, while others cost $1000/year.
It's not a one-time purchase but an annual cost, so decide considering the cost.

6. Website Construction~Deployment

Cloudflare Workers/Pages

You'll be asked to present a company (business) website during organization account registration, so you need to deploy a website on the domain you acquired in "5. Domain Acquisition".
If you acquired your domain with Cloudflare, you can easily set up a website on your domain using Cloudflare Workers or Cloudflare Pages.

Cloudflare Workers

Cloudflare Pages

Use Workers for full-stack applications and Pages for static sites, but basically Workers is a superset of Pages, so if in doubt, choose Workers.
By the way, Workers is free for up to 100,000 requests per month (as of October 2025), so there's usually no cost.

Website Content

For the site content, a simple page with basic business information and self-introduction seems sufficient.
In my case, I attempted organization account registration with a single-page site containing a very simplified version of the current About page, and passed review without difficulty.
The content was as follows:

• Casually described what I want to do on this website in the future (individual development and IT technology information sharing)

• Brief career history with all privacy information like real name, address, school names, and company names obscured

Therefore, if your only goal is to pass review for now, creating a simple web page with just HTML and CSS using ChatGPT or similar seems sufficient.

After implementing your website, deploy it to Cloudflare following Cloudflare's instructions using any method.
If you don't have particular preferences, the "drag and drop files" method is the most convenient.

Cloudflare Workers/Pages options

7. Route Configuration

Route Configuration Function

You need to configure DNS settings so that accessing your acquired domain leads to your deployed business website from the previous section.
For example, on this site, I've configured it so that accessing https://yukapero.com leads to this website.

Route Configuration Process

On the Cloudflare Workers/Pages dashboard page, Projects (red box) are displayed, so select this to go to the project page.

Cloudflare Workers/Pages dashboard

Next, select the Settings tab (red box) on the project page to open the project settings screen.

Project page

When the project settings screen opens, select Add button under Domains and Routes → Custom Domain.

Domains and Routes

Custom Domain

Enter the domain you acquired in the previous step, press the Add Domain button, and you're done.

Add domain

Functionality Check

Enter your acquired domain in your browser's address bar and check if you can access it.
However, it can take several hours to up to 48 hours for domain settings to fully propagate to DNS, so if you can't access it, wait some time and try again. In my case, it became accessible in less than an hour.

8. Custom Domain Email Address Acquisition

Why You Need a Custom Domain Email Address

A custom domain email address is required during organization account registration. It's used as a business contact, and you need a custom domain email address rather than free email (like Gmail). (Attempting to register with free email will result in an error preventing you from proceeding.)

Using the domain acquired in the previous step, create an email address like "xxxxxx@<your domain>".

Email Routing Configuration

Configure so that when emails are sent to "xxxxxx@<your domain>", they're forwarded to your regular email address.

First, open the account home of the Cloudflare dashboard and select your acquired domain name.

Account home

After transitioning to the domain dashboard page, select Email → Email Routing from the left sidebar.

Domain dashboard sidebar

On the Email Routing page, select the Routing Rules tab.

Email Routing page

When the Routing Rules tab is displayed, select the Create Address button under Custom Addresses.

Routing Rules

Configure the custom address.

Routing Rules

Press the save button and configuration is complete.

NOTE

The email address configured in this step is receive-only so you can't reply, but receive-only is sufficient for organization account review, so don't worry.

Functionality Check

Send an email from any email address to the configured custom address and test whether it's forwarded to the specified email address.
Note that if the sender and forwarding destination addresses are the same, it won't forward properly due to Cloudflare's system constraints, so send an email from a different unrelated address for testing.

9. DUNS Number Issuance

Why You Need a DUNS Number

DUNS number is mandatory for both Apple and Google organization account registration. The DUNS number is an international standard number for company identification, used to prove organization existence.

New DUNS Number Issuance

You can process DUNS number issuance for free from Apple's D-U-N-S Number Lookup Page.

DUNS search

The title "D-U-N-S Number Lookup" is misleading, but after searching, if it's confirmed that a number hasn't been issued yet, it switches to guidance for issuing a new one.

Follow the form to enter necessary information.

NOTE

You can also apply for number issuance starting from Tokyo Shoko Research, but for free plan issuance, the estimated delivery time is an unreasonably long 30 business days.

DUNS search

Even with the Apple-initiated issuance (free) introduced in this article, it ultimately goes through the route Apple → D&B → Tokyo Shoko Research, involving Tokyo Shoko Research, but in my case, it was completed from application to number issuance in about 2 business days. This 30-business-day estimate is very different from my experience.
The reason is unknown, but Apple-initiated issuance may be completed in a few days.

DUNS Number Issuance Application Receipt Notification

After applying for DUNS number issuance, an email from D&B company immediately arrives notifying you that the application has been received (personal information is masked with *).

Please do not respond to this message. This is a system generated email.
Thank you for your inquiry . Your inquiry has been assigned Tracking ID # ***. We will notify you through email as soon as the resolution(s) on your inquiry are complete.

Case Number(s): *******
Submitted Date/Time: *** (UTC)
Business name: yukapero.com
Duns:
Location: ***
Requester's Own Request Key: ***
Concern categories: Add business - Mini Inquiry - Identity Data Only

**Please note that a separate notification of the results will be sent after the completion of each case.

Sincerely,
D&B iResearch Team

Application Content Confirmation Email from Tokyo Shoko Research

3 days after application, spanning a weekend, I received the following communication from Tokyo Shoko Research.

yukapero.com
Contact Person

Thank you for your business. My name is *** from Tokyo Shoko Research.
We have received a request from Apple for DUNS number registration through our partner company D&B (Dun & Bradstreet), and I'm contacting you for confirmation.

■ Inquiry Details
yukapero.com
Address: ***
Telephone: ***

Could you please confirm and inform us about the following 6 points?

① Company Name: Regarding your application, is the Japanese company name also "yukapero.com"?
(Could you also provide the reading in katakana?)
※ Please note that the English text on the DUNS number will all be half-width uppercase due to system specifications.

② Confirmation of Sole Proprietorship: If you are a sole proprietor, please let us know.
③ Actual Address: Is "***" as applied correct?
④ Representative Phone Number: Is "***-****-****" as applied correct?
⑤ Representative Name: Please provide the representative's name.
・ Kanji:
・ Kana:
・ English:

⑥ Business Type: Please provide an overview of your business. (Examples: shellfish/seaweed harvesting, fruit farming, beer manufacturing, etc.)

If you have no recollection of this matter, we apologize. Please kindly discard this message.

Apple has requested a response by **/**/**, so we would greatly appreciate your confirmation by then.
We will proceed with the procedures as soon as we receive your confirmation and communication.

...

Just honestly answer what's being asked.
As one point of caution, for "② Confirmation of Sole Proprietorship: If you are a sole proprietor, please let us know," be honest and respond that you are a sole proprietor.
After responding to the questions, I received the following communication from Tokyo Shoko Research on the same day.

yukapero.com
*** -san

Thank you for your business. This is *** from Tokyo Shoko Research.
Thank you for your communication.

We have acknowledged the following 6 points.
We will proceed with the issuance procedures with the information provided.

After the DUNS number is issued, we will respond to D&B company.
After that, we understand that D&B company will send you a DUNS number notification.
Please confirm that.

※ Regarding global data updates, it may take several weeks from this data update.
After receiving the DUNS number notification from D&B company, if the global data hasn't been updated yet, we would appreciate it if you could wait a bit and check again.

Thank you very much.

...

Issuance Completion Notification

The day after responding to Tokyo Shoko Research's communication, I successfully received the following DUNS number issuance completion email from D&B company.

Please do not respond to this message. This is a system generated email.
Case # *** has been resolved.

...

Concern category: Add business - Mini Inquiry - Identity Data Only
Resolution: D-U-N-S Number created
Sub-Resolution: Verified through a company spokesperson

Resolution comment: ***
YUKAPERO.COM
***
***-****-****

Updated Information:
Resolution Duns: <Issued DUNS Number>
Business Name: YUKAPERO.COM
Address
***
Telephone Number:
***-****-****

Sincerely,
D&B iResearch Team

This completes DUNS number issuance.
Use the DUNS number written in the email for later Apple and Google organization account registration.

10. Creating Apple/Google Accounts (Optional)

Apple Developer accounts and Google Developer accounts are obtained by adding developer functionality on top of Apple/Google accounts.
Therefore, first you need to obtain Apple/Google accounts.
Since organization information isn't registered yet at this point, there are no special considerations.

Creating an Apple Account

Create an Apple account from here.

Creating an Apple account

Creating a Google Account

Create a Google account from here.

Creating a Google account

NOTE

If you already have personal accounts, you can reuse them, but separating business and personal use makes management easier.

11. Apple - Individual Account Registration (Optional)

WARNING

While the ultimate goal is to register as an organization account, in my case, I first registered as an individual account, then applied for migration to an organization account, so I'll explain following that flow. While unverified, if you're in a hurry, you might want to apply for organization account registration from the start.

Update from individual to organization

Registration Process

Access the Apple Developer account page and select Enroll Now.

Apple Developer account page

A list of terms will be displayed, so review and proceed.
First, you'll be asked to enter personal information like name, address, and phone number, so register according to the form (this will be skipped if already registered).

Personal information registration (image shows English, but may display in Japanese depending on environment)

Points to note:

• If address entry is requested in Roman characters, you can reference services like Kimi ni Todoke! that convert Japanese addresses to English.

• Japan's country code is "+81", so if your phone number is 080-1234-5678, the international phone number format would be "+818012345678" (replace the leading 0 with +81)

Next, select the entity type.
For now, select Individual/Sole Proprietor.

Select entity type

A list of legal agreements will be displayed, so review and proceed.
The pre-purchase confirmation screen will be displayed, so if there are no problems, purchase membership from the Purchase button.

Creating an Apple account

NOTE

This article introduced the web-based registration method, but you can also create a Developer account through the Apple Developer app.

Apple Developer app

If you have an iOS device or macOS device and registration on the web doesn't work well, try app-based registration following this official flow.

WARNING

Identity verification using identity documents may be required in some cases.
In that case, verification will be conducted via email correspondence or through the Apple Developer app. Just in case, prepare identity documents like a passport, My Number Card, or driver's license.

Membership Purchase Confirmation Email

Soon after purchase is complete, you'll receive a purchase confirmation email.

Subject: Thank you for your order ***

About 2 hours after the above email, I received the following email with an invoice (PDF) attached.

Subject: Billing notice: ***

WARNING

At this point, registration is not complete and you're in the review phase.
Even after purchasing membership, the Developer account page continues to display prompts to purchase membership due to a confusing specification, so be very careful not to purchase membership twice.
After receiving the purchase confirmation email, wait patiently for up to 48 hours for communication from Apple without doing anything.

Apple's major trap

Apple Developer Program Registration Complete

The day after purchasing membership, I received an email with the subject "Welcome to the Apple Developer Program".
This indicates that Apple Developer Program registration has been successfully completed.

Subject: Welcome to the Apple Developer Program

Access the Apple Developer account page and confirm that membership details are displayed.

Membership details

12. Apple - Migration Application from Individual to Organization Account

Migration Application

In the membership details on the Apple Developer account page, select the Update Information button.

Membership details

Select Switch to Organization Membership.

Update Information dialog

You'll then be instructed to wait for communication from Apple.
The next day, I received the following email (partially excerpted).

...

You can begin migrating from an individual membership to a company membership. First, please review the following important points:

1. You must enable two-factor authentication on the Apple Account you use with the Apple Developer Program.
2. You need a valid website. The website must be published and the domain name must be associated with the company.
3. While the migration is being processed, you will not be able to use the "Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles" portal. All other developer resources, including App Store Connect, will continue to be available.
4. When migration is complete, the organization name will be applied to all apps you distribute on the App Store.
5. When migration is complete, the individual membership "Sales and Trends" reports will no longer be available.
6. If you distribute paid apps or apps with in-app purchases, revenue earned before migration completion will be transferred to the bank account that was active when migration started. To change the transfer destination for this revenue, you must change the bank account before starting migration.

When you're ready to begin migration, please notify us by replying to this email.

I will be responsible for handling this matter. For communication, you can reply to this email or use voice messages or text messages via the link below. To send a message about this inquiry, you need to sign in with your registered Apple Account.

https://supportmessaging.apple.com/app/***?locale=ja_JP

When you reply that you're ready to start the migration process, you'll soon receive two types of emails, ① and ②.

①

②

From the "Update" link in the body of ②, continue with the organization migration application.
When you open the link, notes about organization membership migration will be displayed, so review the content and proceed.

Organization account migration notes

Handling DUNS Number Error

Enter your business name (trade name) in the company name and the DUNS number issued in Step 9, then press the continue button.

DUNS number verification

However, an error occurs in the DUNS number field.

DUNS number error

I believe this is because when the entered DUNS number is looked up, it's registered as "sole proprietor" and is being rejected by the system.
I issued the DUNS number as a sole proprietor, and up to this point Apple has repeatedly urged "Sole proprietors should register as individuals!", so it's perhaps natural for an error to occur here.

That said, this is just speculation, so I'll inquire about this error as a last resort by replying to the following email.

Email to reply to for inquiry

For the inquiry content, here's an example of what I sent for reference:

Apple Developer Support <Support staff name>-san

Thank you for your business. This is <my name>.

I'm contacting you to ask about a solution for an error that occurred when entering the D-U-N-S® number.
Currently, I'm entering information from the designated registration link, but when entering the D-U-N-S® number, the following error is displayed and I cannot proceed.

Error message:
"We could not verify that this organization is a legal entity. If you are a sole proprietor/individual business owner, please register as an individual. If this organization is a legal entity, please update your D&B profile."

The D-U-N-S® number has been acquired. (<my DUNS number>)
Could you please provide guidance on the appropriate action to resolve this situation?
I apologize for the trouble, but thank you very much in advance.

<My name>

While I expected a response ending with "Sole proprietors please use individual accounts,"

Organization account migration notes

Like this, Apple Support directly verifies the DUNS number and lets us proceed.
Many questions remain, but since Apple has verified and said OK, let's gratefully proceed.

WARNING

As touched upon in the "Organization Account Registration Requirements" section, while we're applying openly through Apple's review, be aware this may be in a gray area.
While various theories are possible about why this specification exists, there seem to be adult circumstances that shouldn't be probed too deeply, and delving into the truth won't make anyone happy, so let's stop digging deeper.

Migration Application: RE

Skipping DUNS verification

The DUNS number is now optional, and the CAPTCHA form has disappeared.
Support seems to have manually skipped the system DUNS verification.
Enter the business name (trade name) and the DUNS number again just in case, then proceed.

An organization information registration form will then be displayed.
Company name, DUNS number, address, etc. are auto-filled with information tied to the DUNS number and cannot be changed.
The following items require input, so enter them appropriately.

Once input is complete, press Submit to confirm.
You'll immediately receive the following email.

Organization membership change application receipt email

After proceeding this far, wait for review to complete.

Completion

In my case, the day after applying, I successfully received the following email.

Organization membership change application receipt email

Membership migration is complete after agreeing to the license agreement as instructed in the email.
By the way, since you already paid the fee when purchasing individual membership, you don't need to purchase membership again for the migration.

Membership details

In the membership details, confirm that the registration type has changed from "Individual" to "Organization".

13. Google - Organization Account Registration

Registration Process

Log in from Google Play Console.

An account type selection screen will be displayed.
Unlike Apple, Google publicly allows sole proprietor organization account creation, so confidently select organization-type Company or Business and proceed.

Account type selection

It lists what's needed for organization account creation.
Review and proceed.

List of requirements for organization account creation

Specify developer name.
Enter business name (trade name) and proceed.

Setting developer name

Select Create or select payment profile.

Payment profile

Check Create new payment profile and proceed.

Creating new payment profile

Enter the DUNS number issued in Step 9 and proceed.

Setting DUNS number

Information like business name, business address, and phone number registered when issuing the DUNS number will be immediately displayed.
Review the content and proceed if correct.

Confirming DUNS information

After confirming the profile information is correct again, proceed.

Profile confirmation

Enter organization information and proceed.

Setting organization information

Configure developer profile and proceed.

Developer profile settings

Enter information appropriately and proceed.

Your information

Set up contact method from Google and proceed.

Contact method from Google

Answer the app questionnaire appropriately and proceed.
※ Input content shown in image is arbitrary and does not represent the actual situation of yukapero.com

Apps

Fill in checkboxes appropriately and pay the $25.

Registration fee payment

This completes account creation, but important settings remain.
When you go to the Google Play Console dashboard,

• Identity verification

• Verify organization website

These two items will be prompted.
Selecting identity verification displays the following dialog.

Account type selection

For organization registration documents, submit the PDF combining the business opening notification and electronic application proof data sheet created in Step 4.
After waiting about a day for review, if you pass, you can proceed to the next step.

After this, there are identity verification and website ownership verification, but there are no special considerations or sticking points - just follow Google's user-friendly UI and enter/configure as instructed, so I'll omit the details.

Conclusion

That was a long journey, but congratulations on making it this far!
These tasks are merely the preparation stage for app release, but proceeding based on fragmented online information is quite challenging, and I wasted a lot of time.
I sincerely hope this article helps those who, like me, are about to challenge mobile app development not to get discouraged before even reaching the starting line.

By the way, once you've completed the organization account registration, you've passed the biggest hurdle of the preparation stage. However, if you plan to distribute paid apps, you'll need to complete additional "tax information registration" procedures (such as U.S. Substitute Form W-8BEN-E).
I'll explain those in a separate article.