Which Asian Countries Let You Send a Japanese Head Chef? Visa Map

Nine Asian markets let a Japanese restaurant group bring in a Japanese head chef, each through its own work permit route with its own company test, salary floor and renewal cycle. Lead time runs about 10 to 16 weeks in every market once you have picked a candidate. This page is a routing table, one row per market: it does not repeat any country's rules in depth. Click through to the market you are staffing for the company test, the pay floor, the cost and the timeline.

1. The nine markets at a glance

According to MAFF, Japanese restaurants overseas totalled about 181,000 in 2025, of which about 112,400 were in Asia. Every market below has an active route for a restaurant to sponsor a Japanese chef; none of them bans cooking as an occupation. What differs is the test your company must pass, the floor you must pay, and how long the permit lasts before you renew it.

2. Five things the table cannot show

• Korea excludes its own cuisine. The E-7 chefs and cooks code covers foreign cuisine; cooks of Korean food, snacks, coffee and traditional tea are not eligible under it. A Japanese restaurant qualifies as foreign cuisine.
• Singapore and Malaysia both exclude Japan from their lower-cost worker schemes. Singapore's services Work Permit takes several Asian source countries but not Japan; Malaysia has no Japan-eligible Visit Pass (Temporary Employment) route. In both markets, a Japanese chef only ever uses the higher, points- or salary-tested pass.
• Taiwan's chef category is real but narrow. "Chef work in the food and beverage industry" is a named category under the specialised and technical work rules, but the turnover or hotel-licence gate means a small, newly opened restaurant can fail it before the chef's own qualifications are even considered.
• Thailand and Indonesia tie the permit to headcount or a training duty, not just to the chef. Thailand requires four Thai staff per foreign worker; Indonesia requires a named Indonesian counterpart the chef is training to eventually take over the role.
• "No published floor" is not "no cost." Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines set no chef-specific minimum wage, but each still requires paying at least the local minimum wage, plus levies (Indonesia's DKP-TKA) or ordinary payroll costs the company must budget for.

3. How to use this table this week

• Rule out on the company test first, not the chef. Thailand's capital and headcount rule, Taiwan's turnover test and Korea's floor-area and VAT tests can each disqualify a company before any chef is discussed.
• Check whether your target market excludes Japan from a cheaper worker category (Singapore, Malaysia) before assuming the standard skilled-worker cost applies.
• Open the market's own page for the pay floor against market rate, the full first-year cost, and the week-by-week filing calendar; this page only routes you there.
• For a market not on this list — the Gulf, the US, the UK, Canada, Australia — see overseas work visas for cooks or can a restaurant sponsor a chef visa.

General information prepared from official government sources in each market and JETRO's system guides, checked in September 2026. Not legal or immigration advice. Work permit rules in Asian markets change often and outcomes depend on individual circumstances; confirm with local authorities or a professional before applying.