Prospects for $\tau$ Lepton Physics at Belle II

The Belle II experiment is a substantial upgrade of the Belle detector and will operate at the SuperKEKB energy-asymmetric $e^+e^-$ collider. The design luminosity of the machine is 8$\times10^{35}$ cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$ and the Belle II experiment aims to record 50 ab$^{-1}$ of data, a factor of 50 more than its predecessor. From February to July 2018, the machine has completed a commissioning run and main operation of SuperKEKB has started in March 2019. Belle II has a broad $\tau$ physics program, in particular in searches for lepton flavor and lepton number violations (LFV and LNV), benefiting from the large cross section of the pairwise $\tau$ lepton production in $e^+e^-$ collisions. We expect that after 5 years of data taking, Belle II will be able to reduce the upper limits on LFV and LNV $\tau$ decays by an order of magnitude. Any experimental observation of LFV or LNV in $\tau$ decays constitutes an unambiguous sign of physics beyond the Standard Model, offering the opportunity to probe the underlying New Physics. In this talk we will review the $\tau$ lepton physics program of Belle II.