Opening in Bangkok: Capital, Thai Staff and Monthly Cost

Employing a Japanese chef in Bangkok depends more on your company's paid-up capital and Thai headcount than on salary: THB 2 million in registered capital per foreign worker, four Thai employees per foreigner, and at least THB 50,000 a month in salary. The capital is a balance sheet requirement that stays in the company, not a running cost. Actual monthly cash cost per Japanese employee, salary plus social security and an amortised share of permit fees, runs to roughly THB 51,500. Plan for about six months from company registration to the chef's first shift.

1. Check ownership first

Under Thailand's Foreign Business Act, the sale of food and beverages sits on List 3, and a company with 50% or more foreign capital generally needs permission following approval by the Foreign Business Committee. Settle this before anything about work permits. The mechanics of the Act itself are covered in full in our Thailand guide; the conclusion you need for planning is simpler. A Thai-majority company can go straight to the next section. A foreign-majority company with no BOI promotion needs to confirm whether it needs a Foreign Business Licence before the staffing conversation starts.

2. The conditions by headcount

For an ordinary restaurant company without BOI promotion, the minimum conditions scale directly with the number of Japanese staff.

The table shows what an opening plan has to settle. Adding Japanese staff assumes a capital increase. The Thai headcount decides whether your restaurant is even large enough to carry the model: a small counter restaurant with fewer than four Thai staff cannot meet the conditions for even one Japanese employee.

3. Capital and monthly cost are different money

Opening budgets often blur these two kinds of money together. The THB 2 million per foreign worker is registered as the company's paid-up capital and stays there as a balance sheet requirement; it is not a monthly expense. It does, however, need to be actually paid into the company in cash, so where that money comes from, a parent company injection or a loan, is a separate financing decision.

Set against that, each Japanese employee carries a real monthly cash cost on top of salary.

The fee breakdown and the full first-year total for one hire are in our Thailand guide. What matters here is keeping the one-off capital requirement and the recurring monthly cost as separate budget lines. Whether to send two or three people rather than one is a question about this monthly cost and the Thai team's payroll together, not just about raising more capital.

4. A backward schedule for the opening

The fees and legal requirements are official; the months are a planning allowance, not a published processing time. Working backward from opening day:

Run Thai hiring and social security registration ahead of the chef's visa process, not alongside it. Without that registration already in place, the work permit application stalls at the Department of Employment.

5. The renewal trap, and a buffer against it

At the one year extension, the THB 50,000 salary and the 4:1 Thai ratio are checked again. We found no officially published grace period or remedy for what happens if Thai staff leave after opening and headcount falls below the ratio before that renewal. Plan on the assumption that the extension can simply be refused; immigration offices are also said to vary in how strictly they apply the rule.

The fix is straightforward: hire above the strict 4:1 minimum, for example five Thai staff per Japanese employee rather than exactly four. Restaurant staff turnover is ordinary, and that buffer is insurance against landing exactly one Thai employee short at the moment the renewal is assessed.

6. Secondees versus local hires: social insurance and tax

Whether someone sent from Japan travels as a secondee or as a genuine local hire is a separate decision from the work permit itself. The immigration and Department of Employment review is the same either way, but social insurance and tax treatment differ.

• Social insurance: employees in Thailand are generally covered by Thai social security (5% from employer and employee, on wages up to the THB 17,500 ceiling through 2028). As of 2 March 2026, Japan and Thailand have no social security agreement in force, according to the Japan Pension Service. So keeping a secondee enrolled in Japan's health insurance and employees' pension adds a separate cost on top of Thai social security, rather than replacing it. Weigh that added cost against the benefit of an unbroken Japanese pension record.
• Tax: someone present in Thailand for 183 days or more in a tax year is generally treated as a Thai tax resident. On the Japan side, an employee posted abroad for a year or more is generally treated as a non-resident for Japanese income tax purposes. The exact outcome depends on how the secondment is structured, including whether part of the salary is still paid from Japan and how any stay-at-home allowance is handled, so confirm specifics with tax advisers in both countries.
• The practical dividing line: a head chef you expect to bring home or move to another site later usually travels as a secondee, keeping the Japan employment contract in place. A cook you expect to keep in Bangkok for the longer term usually becomes a genuine local hire. Either way the work permit application is the same; the contract and HR structure is what you decide alongside the corporate design.

7. Thai staff are the foundation

Because of these rules, Thai staff are the core of a Japanese restaurant in Bangkok, in numbers and in how the place runs. What you need from a Japanese head chef is less their own cooking than their ability to train Thai staff to produce the same food.

• Put recipes and prep steps into numbers, and make them readable in Thai.
• Pick candidates for front of house manager and sous chef from among Thai staff before opening.
• Use MAFF's Japanese cuisine cooking skill certification as a training goal for Thai staff.

Approaches to teaching local staff are in training local staff in Japanese cuisine. We could not find official statistics on pay by occupation for Thai cooks or front of house staff, so check pay levels with local peers or recruitment firms. Bangkok's own market and diners are covered in our English guide.

8. Checklist

• Have you confirmed the foreign ownership share and whether a Foreign Business Act permission is needed?
• Is THB 2 million of paid-up capital per Japanese employee built into the actual financing plan?
• Is Thai hiring and social security registration scheduled ahead of the work permit application, not alongside it?
• Are you hiring above the strict 4:1 ratio to buffer against turnover?
• Is the monthly cash cost per Japanese employee (salary, social security, permit fees) budgeted separately from the capital requirement?
• Have you provisionally decided which staff travel as secondees and which as local hires, and checked the social insurance and tax treatment?

General information, not legal, tax or immigration advice. Conditions were checked as of September 2026. Confirm your specific case with a Thai lawyer or accounting firm and with tax advisers in both Japan and Thailand.