Chef Offer Letter Template, English and Japanese

An offer letter for a chef moving from Japan needs four things a plain hiring template does not: a start date tied to the visa grant with a long-stop date, a stated answer for who pays what if the visa is refused, a Japanese version the chef can actually read, and a clear signal of what belongs in the contract instead. Below is the full template, bilingual, plus concrete options for the visa-failure clause and two worked examples.

1. Offer letter, contract, visa filing: which one says what

Owners writing their first international offer usually put too much in the letter or too little. The three documents below each carry a different job. Keep facts in one place and cross-refer rather than repeating them, so a later change only needs updating once.

If title, pay, hours or location change after the letter is signed, update the contract and check with your immigration adviser before the change takes effect. A quiet mismatch between the three documents is the kind of problem that surfaces at a visa renewal, not at hiring.

2. Chef offer letter template, in English and Japanese

3. The visa-failure clause: four options and their cost

This is the clause the old version of this template left blank, and it is the one candidates and their families care about most. A chef in Japan who resigns on the strength of your letter, books nothing, and then has the visa refused has lost a job for nothing. Pick one option, adapt the wording, and put it in the "If the visa is refused or delayed" row above.

Whichever you choose, keep it separate from the repayment or clawback question, which is about recovering costs from the chef after employment starts if they leave early. That question, and which countries forbid it, is answered in full on the contract checklist; do not draft your own version of it here.

4. Two worked examples

The clauses that apply change with the route. These two examples show what to keep and what to drop.

5. Sending an offer to a chef in Japan

• Send the Japanese column. State which language prevails if the two differ, and make sure the translation matches exactly; do not send an English-only letter and call it done.
• Show annual pay. Chefs in Japan think in annual and monthly salary. If you pay hourly, add the annual equivalent at your standard hours.
• Expect comparison with a labour condition notice (労働条件通知書). A chef employed in Japan should have received one under Japanese law. Laying out your letter under similar headings (contract period, place of work, duties, hours, days off and leave, pay, leaving the job) makes it easier to read and compare.
• Mind the time zone. Give the acceptance deadline in both time zones, as the template does above.

If the chef will be seconded from a Japanese parent company rather than hired locally, the paperwork is different; see secondment and employment contracts for overseas postings. For the documents a Japanese police certificate needs and how long it takes, see Japanese police certificates for visas.

6. Before you send it

• Do title, pay, hours and start date match what you agreed in conversation, and what will go in the contract and visa filing?
• Is the start date tied to the visa grant, with a long-stop date?
• Have you picked one of the four options in section 3, rather than leaving the clause blank?
• Have you sent the Japanese column, not only the English one?
• Is there an acceptance deadline in both time zones, and a named contact?
• Has a local employment lawyer reviewed the final version alongside the contract?

General information, not legal or immigration advice. This template is a starting point only; employment and immigration law differ by country and change over time. Have your offer letter and contract reviewed by a qualified local adviser.