Gōshi gaisha

Go-shi Gaisha (合資会社) is a Japanese concept of an "unlimited liability" incorporation, but its structure is similar to the limited partnership. Unlike the other business types (godo-kaisha and kabushiki-kaisha) there is no limit on what a general partner ("mugen sekinin shain") of the company is legally responsible for.

Structure

In a Go-shi Gaisha, partners are divided into two categories: 1) a general partner who has unlimited liability similar to a partner in a general partnership and 2) a limited partner who has limited liability only up to the amount he has invested in the partnership (limited partner). All partners are still directly liable to creditors of the partnership, and thus partners can still be sued individually (direct liability).