HR for Japanese Restaurant Companies Expanding Abroad

When a Japanese restaurant company expands abroad, work on sites, funding and menus starts early, but HR often begins and ends with the question of who will be the first head chef. That can carry the first restaurant. By the second and third, appraisal, pay, repatriation and training of local staff all become problems at once.

This guide is for people running overseas expansion at Japanese restaurant companies. It sets out which HR functions to place at head office and in the local company, and how to set up the rules for staff sent from Japan, together with the official schemes that could be confirmed from public sources.

1. Japan's targets and restaurant expansion abroad

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) Export Expansion Strategy (農林水産物・食品の輸出拡大実行戦略, revised May 2025) sets a target for earnings from the overseas expansion of Japan's food industry of ¥3 trillion in 2030, up from ¥1.6 trillion in 2022. The figure includes overseas expansion by the restaurant industry as well as food manufacturing, wholesale and retail.

The strategy says that growing these earnings means increasing royalty income as well as returns on direct investment, and it commits to promoting franchise expansion by restaurant companies, including smaller ones. The support it lists, matched to stages from considering entry to scaling up, includes:

• Hands-on support from JETRO and SME Support Japan (中小企業基盤整備機構) advisers in Japan
• Long-term, low-interest loans from Japan Finance Corporation (日本政策金融公庫) for setting up an overseas subsidiary and investing in facilities
• In major markets such as North America and ASEAN, local specialists in law and tax to help with investment and business regulations and tax filings
• Information from the Global Food Value Chain (GFVC) public-private council

This support is mainly about regulation and legal matters. How to find and develop the people who work in the restaurants is something each company has to design itself.

2. The HR job depends on the expansion model

Direct operation, a joint venture, or a franchise or licence: the model you choose makes a big difference to what head office HR has to cover.

Under a franchise you do not employ local staff directly, but whether taste and quality hold up depends on how the training and technical support are designed. HR work does not disappear. It is easier to think of it as shifting from employing people to selling a system for teaching them.

3. Functions to keep at head office

With only a few overseas restaurants you often cannot justify a dedicated person, but you still need to decide who owns these functions.

• Overseas assignment rules. Put secondment terms, overseas allowances, housing, home leave, family and post-return terms in writing. Deciding case by case makes unfairness likely from the second person onwards. See drafting secondment and employment contracts (Japanese).
• A pool of candidates. Keep track, in normal times, of employees who want to go abroad and those with overseas experience. For outside hires, chefs who have returned from working abroad are strong candidates.
• Visa tracking. List who holds which visa and when it expires. Visas are tied to the employer and the role, so transfers and promotions can also require paperwork.
• Appraisal and return. Decide how results abroad count in your domestic appraisal system and what post someone returns to. If there is no visible path home, people are more likely to change employer locally.

4. Functions to set up in the local company

Local employees are, in principle, covered by that country's employment law. You cannot simply bring over your Japanese work rules.

• Payroll and social insurance. Withholding and social insurance differ by country. With few restaurants, a common choice is to use a local payroll provider or accounting firm.
• Contracts and work rules. Draft them under local law. Country basics are in employment management for Japanese restaurants abroad (Japanese).
• Hiring. Local staff are mostly hired through local job boards and referrals. For the roles involved, see Japanese kitchen roles explained.
• Restaurant management. Appointing a manager or general manager to handle staff and numbers, separate from the head chef, makes a big difference to the head chef's workload.

5. Rules for staff sent from Japan

Japanese schemes apply differently depending on the route: sending chefs and managers on secondment (在籍出向), or having the local company employ them directly. Here we cover only three points that matter for setting up HR. For a full comparison, see secondment versus local hire (Japanese).

Special enrolment in workers' accident insurance

According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's guide to special enrolment for overseas dispatched workers (特別加入制度のしおり 海外派遣者用), people dispatched from a business in Japan to one abroad can join Japan's workers' accident compensation insurance through special enrolment. However, locally hired staff cannot, because they are not dispatched from a business in Japan. Short overseas business trips, where the person remains attached to a workplace in Japan, are covered by the Japanese insurance with no special procedure; which category applies is judged on the actual working arrangement.

Income tax residence

The National Tax Agency's published Q&A says that a person who leaves for an overseas assignment expected to last one year or more is treated as a non-resident from the time of departure, and someone expected to be away less than a year is treated as a resident at departure. If plans change, the treatment changes from the day the change becomes clear, not retroactively. Decide the expected length of the assignment when you issue the transfer order.

Social insurance

Whether a seconded employee stays in Japanese social insurance or joins the local system depends on whether there is a social security agreement. The points for chefs are in social security agreements and chefs (Japanese).

6. Plan localisation from the start

Cost and visas both limit how many Japanese staff you can keep abroad, and for how long. Deciding at the first opening which positions will pass to local staff, and in which year, keeps your training investment from going to waste.

Some countries require local development by rule. In Malaysia, a succession plan becomes mandatory for Employment Pass Categories II and III from 1 January 2027. Its stated purpose is to upskill local employees during the EP holder's tenure. If a Japanese head chef works on an EP, you will need to show whom they are developing and how.

MAFF's certification of cooking skills for Japanese cuisine overseas (海外における日本料理の調理技能認定制度) is a useful yardstick. It has three levels, Bronze, Silver and Gold, and 3,976 people were certified as of 31 March 2026. You can also build into the Japanese head chef's objectives which certification local staff should reach, and by when. See the certification explained (Japanese) and succession planning in a Japanese kitchen.

7. Checklist by stage

Here is the HR preparation laid out along the stages MAFF's strategy uses: considering entry, launch and expansion.

A month by month staffing schedule for opening is in staffing plan for an overseas opening (Japanese), and estimating labour cost is covered in building a labour cost budget for an overseas opening.

General information, not legal, tax or employment advice. Schemes described were checked against publications from MAFF, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the National Tax Agency and others as of 22 September 2026. Consult a professional for individual decisions.