Hire a Japanese Chef in Italy: Quota, CCNL Pay, Bridges

Italy admits most non-EU cooks through an annual quota decree, filed on fixed online "click days", and Japan holds a reserved share of that quota alongside about twenty other countries. The 2026 click days have already passed and 2027 dates are not yet announced, so a reader arriving today needs a bridge, not a quota application: a working holiday cook for up to six months with no quota needed, a seasonal tourism permit for a resort restaurant, or a Japanese cook who already holds an EU or Italian residence title. The CCNL Turismo sets a cuoco's legal pay floor at about €1,652.70 a month over 14 payments; build the offer from there, not from nothing.

1. How Italy admits foreign workers

For most employment, an employer obtains a nulla osta (clearance) for the worker from the Sportello Unico per l'Immigrazione at the prefecture. The number of clearances for non-seasonal and seasonal employment is capped each year by the Decreto Flussi, the decree on entry flows. Some categories are admitted outside the quotas, but for a restaurant cook, the quota route is the normal one.

2. The 2026 to 2028 quotas, and Japan's reserved share

The current decree (DPCM of 2 October 2025, Gazzetta Ufficiale no. 240 of 15 October 2025) sets quotas for three years at once, 497,550 entries in total:

The sectors open to non-seasonal quota hires expressly include "servizi di alloggio e ristorazione" (accommodation and food services), so a restaurant can apply for a cook under the non-seasonal quota. Article 6(2) reserves 25,000 places a year, shared across Japan and roughly twenty other cooperation countries (Albania, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Morocco, the Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and others), and being on that list also opens the article 7 seasonal tourism quota to Japanese nationals, since that quota is restricted to the same country list.

3. Pay: the CCNL Turismo floor for a cuoco

The CCNL Turismo (Confcommercio, covering pubblici esercizi and non-seasonal ristorazione) classifies "cuoco (capo partita o non a partite)" at livello 4, the same level as pizzaiolo and chef de rang. The table effective from June 2025 sets the minimo tabellare for livello 4 at €1,652.70 a month gross, paid over 14 mensilità (the standard 12 months plus the 13th and 14th month bonuses), which works out to about €23,138 a year before deductions.

This is the legal floor, and the nulla osta application needs a contract at CCNL terms, but it is not what an experienced Japanese cook should expect. We did not find an official occupation-level wage survey for cooks in Italy to cite for market pay above this floor, so treat €1,652.70 as the number to clear, not the number to offer, and set the real figure by what the role and the candidate's experience actually justify.

4. The job centre check before you apply

Before requesting a nulla osta for a non-seasonal worker, the employer must check that no worker already in Italy is available. The procedure, based on article 22(2-bis) of the Consolidated Immigration Act as amended by Decree-Law 145/2024:

• The employer sends a staff request to the job centre (Centro per l'Impiego) for its province.
• The job centre publishes the offer so eligible workers can apply.
• The employer can proceed if the job centre reports no available workers within 8 calendar days, if the worker sent is not suitable, or if they do not attend the interview without good reason (after at least 20 working days from the request).
• The employer attaches a self-certification of the outcome to the nulla osta application.

This check does not apply to seasonal workers. The procedure dates from November 2024; confirm the current form with your job centre before relying on the timings above.

5. A 12-month backward plan for the next click day

The 2026 click days have passed, and at the time of writing we could not find official 2027 dates: the Ministry of Labour's own announcement of the 2026-2028 decree gives only the 2026 dates. Historically, pre-filling opens in autumn before each click day, so plan on that basis rather than waiting for an exact date:

6. If you need a cook before the next click day

Three routes do not depend on the click day:

• The Italy-Japan working holiday (in force since 1 April 2026, Law no. 136 of 17 September 2025): participants aged 18 to 30, up to one year's stay, work capped at six months, no nulla osta needed. Japan's foreign ministry lists 500 visas a year. Use this for a season or as a trial before applying for a quota place; see our working holiday guide for Europe for how Italy's cap compares with the rest of the continent.
• The seasonal tourism quota (article 7), open to Japanese nationals because Japan sits on the article 6(2) cooperation list, does not require the job centre check, and suits a resort restaurant with a defined season rather than a year-round kitchen.
• A Japanese cook who already holds an EU or Italian residence title that allows work removes the quota question entirely; ask every Japanese applicant what status they already hold before assuming you need the quota route at all.

7. Milan, Rome and the wider market

Japan's agriculture ministry found the number of Japanese restaurants in Italy fell by about 300 between 2023 and 2025, while Germany, the Netherlands and the UK all grew over the same period. Milan and Rome carry the largest concentrations of Japanese dining in the country, which means the most competition for both diners and staff; a strong local sous chef and a documented training plan matter more here than in a smaller market, given how long the quota route takes end to end. See training local staff in Japanese cuisine.

General information gathered from official sources in September 2026, not legal or immigration advice. The Decreto Flussi procedures are detailed and change with each round; check the prefecture and ministry pages or consult an adviser before acting.