Ten Asia-Pacific jurisdictions on one page you can print
What each one regulates, what actually triggers a licence, the headline penalty, and the date every entry was last checked. Free, and free to pass around your team.
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What is on it
- The three answers. "Is investigation licensed?" resolves to profession, activity or neither, and which jurisdictions fall where.
- A ten-row table giving each jurisdiction's governing instrument, what triggers the licence, the headline penalty and the verification date.
- Four things that catch people out, including the Malaysian provision that bars a licensed agency from enquiring into a seizable offence, and the Japanese exclusion that puts purely desk-based work outside the Act altogether.
- A currency warning naming the six Vietnamese instruments replaced in eighteen months, so you can tell at a glance whether the guide on your shelf is stale.
Why this sheet is worth having
"Is investigation licensed?" has three answers, not two, and the third one is where cross-border work goes wrong. Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines license the investigator. Thailand, Indonesia, Laos, Hong Kong and South Korea license neither, which is not the same as permitting it. Vietnam licenses the work itself: from 1 July 2026 data analysis, aggregation and personal data processing are conditional business lines, so the work is regulated under a name that has nothing to do with investigation. Japan regulates the investigator but by notification rather than licence, and bounds the definition by method, so work done solely by telephone enquiry or internet collection sits outside its Act.
Everything on the sheet is drawn from the free Asia-Pacific Private Investigation Registry, where each jurisdiction has its own page with the sources linked and the last-verified date on the page. You do not need to give us an email to read any of that. The sheet exists because a single printable page is more useful in a meeting than seven browser tabs.
Coverage, stated plainly
| Covered | Not covered |
|---|---|
| Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea | Of the ASEAN member states, Brunei, Cambodia and Myanmar are not covered. Cambodia and Myanmar have no status register. Brunei's Attorney General's Chambers site is not currently serving, so it cannot be started |
General information for practitioners, not legal advice. Engage local counsel before relying on it for a live matter.