HR Structure for a Japanese Restaurant Group Expanding Abroad

Build the HR system before your second or third overseas site forces it. Decide the expansion model first, since it decides who employs local staff; split functions between head office and the local company rather than leaving both undefined; write assignment rules once instead of negotiating them chef by chef; and set a localisation date at the first opening. Below about two sites you can run this ad hoc. Past that, someone has to own it, even part time.

1. Five signs you have outgrown ad hoc overseas HR

Work on sites, funding and menus starts early; HR often begins and ends with "who is the first head chef". That carries one restaurant. Watch for these signs that it no longer can:

1. Every secondment is negotiated individually, and the second person you send openly compares terms with the first.
2. Nobody can produce, today, a list of who holds which visa and when each one expires.
3. A secondee due to return has no post waiting at home, so they take a local job instead of coming back.
4. Two sites are training the same technique from scratch because nothing from the first site's approach carried over.
5. Payroll, tax residency and social insurance for someone abroad get decided case by case by whoever remembers how it went last time.

Three or more of these means the ad hoc approach has run its course, whatever your site count.

2. The HR job depends on the expansion model

Direct operation, a joint venture, or a franchise or licence changes what head office HR covers, separately from whether any one chef is seconded or recruited locally (that choice is on hiring a Japanese chef for an overseas branch).

Under a franchise you do not employ local staff, but whether taste and quality hold up depends on how training and technical support are designed. HR work does not disappear; it shifts from employing people to selling a system for teaching them.

3. A staffing model for the HR function itself

No official survey publishes headcount or budget benchmarks for an overseas HR function at a Japanese restaurant company, so treat the table below as a method, not a sourced figure. Use the symptom list in section 1 as your actual trigger, not a fixed site count.

4. Functions to keep at head office

With only a few overseas restaurants you often cannot justify dedicated headcount, but you still need to decide who owns each function.

• Overseas assignment rules. Put secondment terms, allowances, housing, home leave, family and post-return terms in writing once. Deciding case by case makes unfairness likely from the second person onward. See drafting secondment and employment contracts (Japanese).
• A pool of candidates. Track, in normal times, 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 employer and role, so transfers and promotions can also need paperwork.
• Appraisal and return. Decide how results abroad count in your domestic appraisal system and what post someone returns to. With no visible path home, people are more likely to leave for a local employer instead.

5. Functions to set up in the local company

Local employees are, in principle, covered by that country's employment law; you cannot bring over your Japanese work rules as they stand.

• Payroll and social insurance. Withholding and social insurance differ by country. With few restaurants, a local payroll provider or accounting firm is the common choice.
• Contracts and work rules. Draft 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. A manager or general manager handling staff and numbers, separate from the head chef, changes the head chef's workload considerably.

6. The secondment package, and its cost against a local hire

Secondment versus local hire is compared scheme by scheme, insurance to tax to family, in secondment versus local hire. What that page does not do is put a total cost on each side, so you can defend the choice in a budget meeting.

Against that, a local hire's total cost is already worked out market by market in budgeting an international chef hire: about S$65,400 in year one for a Singapore S Pass hire, or about A$97,300 for an Australian 482, salary and fees included. Line up your secondment worksheet against that figure for the same market, and the comparison is like for like, not a guess against a headline salary.

7. 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 pass to local staff, and by 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, with the stated purpose of upskilling 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: three levels, Bronze, Silver and Gold, with 3,976 people certified as of 31 March 2026. Build into the Japanese head chef's own objectives which certification local staff should reach, and by when. See the certification explained (Japanese) and succession planning in a Japanese kitchen.

8. Checklist by stage

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

A month by month staffing schedule for one opening is in staffing plan for an overseas opening (Japanese), and estimating labour cost for the whole restaurant is 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 and others as of 27 September 2026. Consult a professional for individual decisions.