How to Get MAFF Japanese Cuisine Certification for Staff

MAFF's Certification of Cooking Skills for Japanese Cuisine in Foreign Countries certifies non-Japanese cooks working outside Japan, in three tiers: Bronze, Silver and Gold. Since the 2024 revision the tiers are stepwise, each requiring the one below it, and the Gold exam is held only in Japan. To get your own overseas staff certified, start by contacting the five registered operating bodies to find a certifying body near you. MAFF does not publish fees, so cost has to be confirmed directly with each body.

1. What the scheme is

On 1 April 2016, MAFF issued the Guideline on Certification of Cooking Skills for Japanese Cuisine in Foreign Countries (revised 1 April 2024), letting private organisations certify, on a voluntary basis, non-Japanese cooks of Japanese food working overseas whose knowledge and skill have reached a set level. Three things to keep in mind: it is not a national qualification, just private certification under a government guideline; it is for non-Japanese cooks only, so it cannot screen a chef recruited from Japan; and it certifies individual cooks, never restaurants — MAFF has no scheme for certifying Japanese restaurants overseas.

2. Requirements for the three levels (after the 2024 revision)

There are three levels: Gold, Silver and Bronze. Under the revision of 1 April 2024, each higher level now requires the level below it, and the years of work experience required were raised.

Two further points. Graduates of a cook training facility in Japan (a facility designated by a prefectural governor under the Cooks Act, 調理師法) do not need the Bronze certification that is otherwise a prerequisite for Silver. And on the Silver requirement of "about 150 hours", MAFF's Q&A with the operating bodies explains this refers to hours spent on subjects covering the knowledge and skills set out in the guideline, not total hours across every subject taken at the cooking school.

When experience at an overseas restaurant counts

The guideline only accepts work experience at "a Japanese restaurant in Japan" or "a Japanese restaurant overseas recommended by a Goodwill Ambassador for Japanese Cuisine" (a MAFF programme running since February 2015; 15 new ambassadors were appointed for fiscal 2025). Experience at your own overseas restaurant does not count towards Silver or Gold unless it holds that recommendation — check with the certifying body in advance. In practice, the 150-hour cooking school course is the realistic route to Silver for most local staff.

3. The knowledge and skills required

The guideline sets out the knowledge and skills to be acquired at each level across four areas. You can use this directly as the framework for your own in-house training curriculum.

It is useful when designing your training to note that making dashi is not part of Bronze. Knife work and hygiene first, then dashi and heat, then menu planning at the end: this staged design matches the order in which cooks are actually developed in a real kitchen.

4. What the exam involves

A Q&A prepared by MAFF and the operating bodies (24 April 2025, updated 1 July the same year) sets out the exam approach. There are two parts, practical and written. The Bronze practical has two mandatory tasks: filleting a fish into three pieces (sanmai oroshi) and katsuramuki (peeling a vegetable into a thin continuous sheet), assessed as a rule against the All Japan Cooking School Association's practical manual. The written exam, as a rule, draws at least 20 questions from the guideline's syllabus, with a 70% pass mark. Silver and Gold practical standards are still being unified across operating bodies. Exam supervisors have their own requirements too: for Bronze, at least one must be a non-Japanese cook certified Silver or above, or a Japanese national the operating body recognises as equivalent.

There is no official textbook, but the Q&A names two reference texts: the Japanese Culinary Academy's "Complete Japanese Cuisine" (日本料理大全, free in Japanese and English via Kyoto Prefectural University) and the All Japan Cooking School Association's own teaching materials (Japanese only, paid).

5. Number of certified cooks by nationality

As of 31 March 2026, there were 28 Gold, 1,337 Silver and 2,611 Bronze certified cooks, 3,976 in total. The tables below take the regional totals and the main countries from MAFF's breakdown by nationality.

Figures are by nationality, not by country of work. South Korea's holders skew Silver; the US and Europe skew Bronze. Against MAFF's 181,000 restaurants worldwide (2025), that is roughly one certified cook per 45 restaurants: still unusual.

6. How to get staff at your overseas restaurant certified

Certification flows from "MAFF → operating bodies (five) → certifying bodies approved by an operating body → cooks". It is the certifying body that runs the exam and awards the certification; the operating bodies approve certifying bodies and keep standards consistent. As of September 2026, the five operating bodies are the Organization to Promote Japanese Restaurants Abroad (JRO), TSA Career Co., Ltd., the All Japan Cooking School Association, VIDA Corporation Co., Ltd., and the Japanese Food and Food Culture Promotion Council (JCDC). MAFF publishes a PDF of their contact details (updated 10 August 2026) and refers questions about their activities to the organisations themselves.

1. Find a certifying body near you. Certifying bodies exist overseas as well as in Japan; JCDC's website alone lists 22, including ones in the UK, Canada, China and Turkey. Ask an operating body whether one covers your country and, if not, how your staff could still sit the exam. Per the Q&A, a certifying body without its own exam supervisor can still run exams using a supervisor sent from another certifying body, including one under a different operating body (Bronze only, for up to two years from first use), so a gap in local coverage does not necessarily rule it out.
2. Choose who will take it. The candidate must be non-Japanese kitchen staff. Start with Bronze, about 10 hours of training plus an exam, which fits around work. For Silver, the 150-hour cooking school course is the realistic route for most local staff; if applying on work experience instead, confirm the Goodwill Ambassador recommendation first (section 2).
3. Prepare in-house. Practise the Bronze practical tasks, sanmai oroshi and katsuramuki, during daily prep. If you have a Japanese head chef, use the guideline's knowledge-and-skills list as training items and coach intensively in the weeks before the exam.

7. What we know about fees and where to apply

To be frank, MAFF's published materials say nothing about exam or certification fees. The guideline sets no fees either, so fees appear to be set by each organisation. While preparing this article we checked the official websites of the All Japan Cooking School Association, VIDA Corporation and JCDC, and none of them listed exam or certification fees.

In addition, when we checked on 22 September 2026, VIDA Corporation's cooking skill certification website displayed a notice that it "has stopped accepting new applicants for certification". When choosing where to apply, contact each organisation directly about whether it is accepting applications and what it charges.

8. What a restaurant can and cannot use it for

Useful for: setting training goals ("Bronze in year one, Silver in year three") that give local staff a career path; giving a Japanese chef you brought over a defined coaching role, turning skills transfer into a visible result (see retaining chefs); and as a rough benchmark of basic skills when hiring locally (for weighing a candidate's existing certificate, see this page).

Not useful for, or needs care: the MAFF logo may only be used by operating and certifying bodies with permission, not put on your own menu or signage; no country treats this as a work-visa requirement, so do not have staff sit it on that assumption; and certifying bodies report certified cooks' names, nationality, country and workplace to MAFF every six months, which may reach embassies and JETRO, so tell staff this before they sit the exam.

For developing local staff more generally, see training local staff in Japanese cuisine. For a different scheme that trains non-Japanese cooks in Japan, see our guide to the programme for developing talent to spread Japanese food culture overseas.

This article is general information, not an official explanation of how the scheme is administered. Requirements and figures were checked against MAFF's published materials as of 27 September 2026. Always confirm eligibility, fees and dates directly with an operating body or a certifying body.