Hiring From Japanese Culinary Schools for a Restaurant Abroad

When a Japanese restaurant abroad looks for junior cooks, Japan's culinary schools are an obvious place to start. Their graduates have learned the basics, and a fair number of them want to work overseas. In practice, though, "hire someone who has just graduated and have them start abroad next month" runs into visa requirements in almost every country.

This guide explains where culinary schools (licensed cook training schools, 調理師養成施設) sit in Japan's system, how recruiting through a school works, and which hiring routes are realistic once visa requirements are taken into account. We only use figures and names we could confirm in official documents and the industry association's statistics.

1. What a licensed cook training school is

Article 3 of Japan's Cooks Act (調理師法) sets out two ways to obtain a cook's licence (調理師免許):

1. Study for at least 1 year at a cook training facility designated by the prefectural governor, acquiring the knowledge and skills in cooking, nutrition and hygiene that a licensed cook needs
2. Work in cooking for at least 2 years at a restaurant or similar establishment, then pass the cook's examination

Culinary schools are the first route. Graduates can apply for the licence without sitting the exam. Most are vocational colleges (専修学校), but there are also high schools with cooking departments and junior colleges. In the daytime vocational courses, 1-year and 2-year programmes are the most common.

What matters for an employer abroad is that graduates have almost no work experience when they leave school. Time spent studying is normally treated separately from the work history that visa rules count.

2. Number of schools and enrolment trends

According to statistics from the Japan Association of Training Colleges for Cooks (全国調理師養成施設協会), there were 266 licensed cook training facilities in fiscal 2025. They include 143 vocational colleges and 111 high schools, and 221 are run by educational corporations (学校法人).

Enrolment is falling. For the vocational colleges covered by the association's figures:

The association notes that this total does not cover every vocational college student. Even so, new enrolments fell by roughly 15% between FY2017 and FY2025. FY2025 was up on the previous year (8,232), but schools filled fewer than 6 in 10 of their places.

Meanwhile, the ratio of job openings to applicants for food preparation workers in Japan was 2.18 in July 2026 (including part time). Graduates are in demand at home too, and schools can be expected to receive plenty of domestic vacancies. An overseas vacancy has to stand out among them.

3. How recruiting through a school works

Legally, a school's careers support is a form of job placement. Article 33-2 of the Employment Security Act (職業安定法) allows the head of a school or vocational college, after notifying the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare, to run a free job placement service. For a vocational college it covers "students of the college or persons who have graduated from it".

Three practical points follow.

• No fee. Because the placement service is free, a school does not charge for passing on your vacancy.
• Graduates are included. The service covers alumni, not just current students, so a school may be able to put your vacancy in front of graduates with a few years' experience.
• Each school decides its scope. The same article allows a school to define the range of placements it handles when it notifies the ministry. Whether it accepts overseas vacancies has to be checked school by school.

Under Article 5-3 of the same act, an employer lodging a vacancy with a placement provider (which includes schools) must state the job content, wages, working hours and other conditions. How far this applies to employers outside Japan is a case-by-case question, but schools are used to receiving conditions in the format of a Japanese job posting. Prepare one that sets out pay, days off, housing, travel and visa arrangements the Japanese way. See writing a job posting for chefs in Japan.

4. Can you bring a new graduate straight abroad? The visa barrier

Most work visas that take chefs require work experience or a minimum salary, which is why they fit new graduates badly.

Working holiday visas, on the other hand, do not ask for experience. Australia, Canada (IEC) and the UK (Youth Mobility Scheme) all accept Japanese nationals aged 18 to 30, which covers nearly every culinary school graduate. The schemes are compared in our working holiday hiring guide.

5. Three realistic hiring routes

Route A: graduates on a working holiday

If your restaurant is in a working holiday partner country, this is the fastest way to take on someone straight out of school. Experience gained in your kitchen during the working holiday may later count towards a work visa (how it counts depends on each country's rules). Remember that the working holiday is applied for by the individual; the employer does not sponsor it. Quotas and conditions change, so check before you set a start date.

Route B: experience at a group restaurant in Japan first, then a transfer

If your company has a restaurant or affiliate in Japan, you can hire graduates there, give them 1 to 3 years of experience and then send them to the overseas branch. This makes visa experience requirements easier to meet, and the cook arrives already knowing the business. State the possibility of transfer abroad in the employment conditions from the start (the range of possible workplaces). Secondment and local hiring are compared in secondment versus local hire.

Route C: graduates with a few years' experience

School placement services cover alumni. Graduates 3 to 5 years out have learned the job in Japan and are often thinking about their next step. They are also more likely to meet work visa experience requirements. Ask the school's careers staff whether they can treat your vacancy as one for graduates.

6. How to approach a school

1. Find schools. The association's website lists licensed cook training facilities across Japan. Choose schools with Japanese cuisine courses or classes close to your format (sushi, kappo, ramen and so on).
2. Contact the careers office. Ask first whether they accept overseas vacancies, whether they can pass vacancies to graduates, and what format and timing they use for job postings.
3. Send a Japanese job posting and material about the restaurant. Include photos of the restaurant and kitchen, the number of Japanese staff and specific housing arrangements. Students often cannot picture life abroad, so photos make a big difference with this group.
4. Ask for a chance to present. Ask whether an online information session or a visit during a trip to Japan is possible. Each school handles this differently.
5. Keep records. Track applicants, hires and who is still with you after a year, by school. You will learn which schools suit you.

7. International graduates

Japanese culinary schools also have international students. MAFF's Japanese food culture overseas promotion training scheme (日本の食文化海外普及人材育成事業) allows foreign graduates of Japanese cook training schools to work in Japanese restaurants and similar businesses in Japan for up to 5 years while developing their skills. It is a scheme for working in Japan, not for sending cooks to restaurants abroad. See our explanation of the scheme.

Still, foreign cooks who have trained and worked in Japan may well go home or to a third country to work in a Japanese restaurant. If you hire someone in their own country, they can often work under their existing status, which lowers the visa barrier. Asking a school whether it has students from your country is one option.

The school route will not give you a finished chef right away. Treat it as an investment in people you will need in 1 to 3 years, and combine it with working holiday hires and experienced chefs. For the wider picture of channels, see where Japanese chefs look for jobs abroad and our companion guide on recruiting from Japanese culinary schools.

General information, not legal or immigration advice. Visa requirements, working holiday conditions and how schools handle job placement can change. Check official sources in each country and with each school before hiring.