Hiring a Japanese Chef in Hanoi: Work Permits and Planning

Hanoi is the one large Japanese community in Vietnam that is still growing. It remains smaller than Ho Chi Minh City's, which means a Hanoi restaurant has an even thinner local pool of Japanese cooks to draw on. This guide covers what is specific to hiring a Japanese chef for a restaurant in Hanoi, as of September 2026. The national rules are set out in our Vietnam guide.

1. Hanoi in numbers

• 5,853 Japanese nationals lived in Hanoi on 1 October 2025, up 3.6% on the year (MOFA).
• Ho Chi Minh City had 9,249, down 5.0%. Vietnam overall had 16,636, down 4.4%.
• MAFF counted 1,820 Japanese restaurants in Vietnam in 2025, up 200 on 2023. We found no official breakdown by city.

So Hanoi is gaining Japanese residents while the national total falls. For a restaurant, a growing expatriate base helps demand. It does little for supply. 5,853 people is a small community, and almost all Japanese nationals in Vietnam (16,086 of 16,636) are long term residents rather than permanent residents, typically there for a job or with family. Few will be free to join your kitchen. Plan on bringing a chef in.

2. Hanoi as a base, or as a second city

Many Japanese restaurant groups in Vietnam start in one of the two big cities and expand to the other. Decree 219/2025/ND-CP, which has governed foreign workers since 7 August 2025, decides where the paperwork goes:

• Work permits are granted, extended and revoked by the provincial level People's Committee (Article 4). A Hanoi restaurant files with Hanoi.
• Where a foreign worker works in several provinces, the People's Committee of the province where the employer's headquarters is is competent. A company headquartered in HCMC that sends its Japanese chef to open and run a Hanoi branch deals with HCMC, not Hanoi, and the reverse applies to a Hanoi headquartered group.

That makes the head office address a practical question, not just a legal one. Before you expand, check which authority will handle your chefs, and keep the chef's duties and work locations in the application consistent with what they will actually do.

3. The permit life cycle

Decree 219 sets a fixed rhythm:

For most Japanese chefs the category will be technical worker: at least 1 year of training plus 2 years of relevant experience, or at least 3 years of experience in the job (Article 3(4)). The evidence is documentary, so collect dated letters from previous employers before you file.

Put the dates in the calendar the day the permit is issued. Missing the 10 day cutoff for an extension is an avoidable way to lose a chef.

4. Pay floors for the Hanoi team

Hanoi is in Region 1 for minimum wage purposes. From 1 January 2026, under Decree 293/2025/ND-CP, the Region 1 minimum is VND 5,310,000 a month or VND 25,500 an hour, up 7.1% (JETRO). JETRO notes that areas within the same province can fall into different regions, so confirm your district in the decree's annex. The regional table is in our Ho Chi Minh City guide.

These floors apply to the Vietnamese team that will work alongside the Japanese chef. Most of the kitchen will be Vietnamese, and their skills decide how much the chef can delegate. See training local staff in Japanese cuisine.

5. Recruiting a chef who is not in Hanoi yet

Since the chef will usually come from Japan or another country, the hiring process runs at a distance:

• Advertise where Japanese chefs look. See where Japanese chefs look for jobs abroad and writing a job ad for chefs in Japan.
• Test skills remotely. A video cooking test and a structured interview filter out weak fits before you spend on flights. See skills tests for remote hiring.
• Check the paperwork early. Ask at the first interview whether the candidate can document 3 years of kitchen work. Without that, the technical worker route is hard.
• Sell the city honestly. Describe housing, working hours and the team the chef will lead. A chef who knows what to expect is more likely to stay beyond the first permit.

6. Checklist

1. Confirm where your headquarters is registered and which People's Committee will handle the permit.
2. Collect the chef's experience letters and any training certificates, with translations.
3. File between 60 and 10 days before the start date.
4. Set Vietnamese staff pay at or above the Region 1 minimum for your district.
5. Diary the expiry date and the extension window.

General information checked in September 2026 against the text of Decree 219/2025/ND-CP, JETRO summaries and Japanese government statistics, not legal or immigration advice. Local practice in Vietnam can change without new legislation. Confirm requirements with the Hanoi authorities or a Vietnamese lawyer before applying.