Hiring a Japanese Chef in Mumbai, Delhi or Bengaluru

Restaurant groups looking at India usually compare three cities: Mumbai, the Delhi region and Bengaluru. The honest starting point is that the rules for hiring a Japanese chef are national and identical in all three, and that the official statistics do not break the Japanese community or the Japanese restaurant count down by Indian city. What does change by city is the cost of the package you must offer and which Japanese mission your chef deals with. This guide covers those differences. The Employment visa itself is explained in our guide to hiring a Japanese chef in India.

1. What the data can and cannot tell you

• MAFF counted 630 Japanese restaurants in India in 2025, up 220 on 2023, an increase of more than half in two years. It gives no city figures.
• MOFA recorded 8,865 Japanese nationals in India on 1 October 2025, up 9.4%. Of those, 8,459 were long-term stayers and only 406 permanent residents.
• MOFA's ranking of the 50 cities abroad with the most Japanese residents includes no Indian city. MOFA publishes city level figures in a separate spreadsheet that we could not access for this guide, so we are not quoting a number for any of the three cities.

If someone gives you a precise count of Japanese residents or Japanese restaurants in Mumbai, Delhi or Bengaluru, ask where it came from. What the national figures do show is clear enough for planning: a fast growing restaurant market and a Japanese community made up almost entirely of people on postings, not settled residents who could join your kitchen.

2. The visa rules do not change by city

The Ministry of Home Affairs' visa details apply nationwide. In short:

• a foreign specialist chef in a commercial venture needs a gross salary above Rs 16.25 lakh a year;
• the ethnic cook exemption from that floor applies to foreign missions, not restaurants;
• Japanese nationals receive an Employment visa of three years with multiple entry, with possible extension of two more years;
• if the visa is valid for more than 180 days, the holder registers with the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) or Foreigners Registration Office (FRO) within 14 days of arrival, and a Japanese national can do this through an authorised representative.

The detail, and the source text, are in our India guide. Nothing in the rules makes one of the three cities easier than another for the visa itself.

3. Where the city does matter: housing and the salary floor

The MHA text counts perquisites such as rent free accommodation towards the Rs 16.25 lakh, provided they are treated as salary for income tax and quantified in the employment contract. That turns city rents into a planning question.

• In a high rent area, the valued accommodation can be a large part of the package, and the cash salary needed to clear the floor falls accordingly. The housing still has to be valued properly for tax; you cannot inflate it to reduce cash pay.
• In a lower rent area, the same flat is worth less on paper, so more of the floor has to be met in cash.

Either way, write the value of the accommodation into the contract, check it against how it is treated for income tax, and make sure cash plus valued perquisites clear Rs 16.25 lakh with room to spare. An offer that clears the floor by a few thousand rupees leaves no margin if the valuation is questioned. Our relocation package guide and contract checklist cover the rest of the package.

4. Consulates, registration and paperwork by city

Japan has an Embassy in New Delhi and Consulates-General in Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru and Kolkata. That matters for your chef, not for your visa application.

Under Article 16 of Japan's Passport Act, a Japanese national who lives abroad for three months or more must file a residence notification (在留届, zairyu todoke) with the Japanese embassy or consulate that covers their address. It can be filed online through MOFA's ORRnet system. A chef in Mumbai or Bengaluru will normally deal with the consulate in that city, and a chef in the Delhi region with the Embassy; the Embassy site lists the missions, so check which one covers the address. Put the notification on your onboarding checklist alongside FRRO registration; the chef handles the first, you or your representative the second. See our guide to onboarding a chef from Japan.

5. Recruiting for Mumbai, Delhi or Bengaluru

With only 406 Japanese permanent residents in the whole country, the local pool is very small in every city. In practice you will recruit:

• from Japan, advertising in Japanese, with the salary, housing and visa support stated clearly;
• from Japanese kitchens in other countries, where a chef already has overseas experience;
• for group openings, by transferring a chef from another branch, with the Employment visa still required.

Candidates in Japan often know little about the differences between Indian cities. A short, factual description of the neighbourhood, the housing you provide, the commute and the team they will lead does more than salary alone. Test skills remotely before the chef travels; see remote skills tests. Training your Indian team is part of the case for needing a specialist, so plan it from the start with our guide to training local staff.

6. Step by step

1. Choose the city on commercial grounds; the visa route is the same everywhere.
2. Price the housing in that city and decide how much of the Rs 16.25 lakh it will cover, valued for tax.
3. Recruit in Japan or from Japanese kitchens abroad and test remotely.
4. Issue a contract with cash pay and perquisites quantified.
5. The chef applies for the Employment visa in Japan.
6. On arrival: FRRO/FRO registration within 14 days (if the visa exceeds 180 days) and the chef's residence notification to the Japanese Embassy or Consulate-General for their city.

General information gathered from official sources in September 2026, not legal, tax or immigration advice. City level figures for Japanese residents and restaurants in India were not available from official sources we could access. The MHA visa details cited in our India guide date from February 2018; confirm the current position with the Indian mission or the Bureau of Immigration, and housing valuation with a tax adviser.