Japanese Kitchen Hierarchy: Which Chef Role Should You Hire?

Hire by what the person has run, not by the title on the CV. An omakase counter needs someone who has run a counter alone; a kaiseki or kappo kitchen needs someone who has held the nikata (simmering) station; an izakaya needs an all rounder across grill and fry. For visas, head chefs, sous chefs and station leads usually fit the Chef code (ANZSCO 351311, NOC 62200, SOC 5434); calling them cooks drops them a class.

Which role fits your restaurant

The specialist trades each have their own page: omakase, kaiseki, izakaya, ramen, tempura.

Title, ad wording and visa code

Use one English title on the ad, the contract and the nomination. Immigration officers compare them, and a mismatch between "sushi cook" on the ad and "chef" on the form invites questions. The code follows the duties, not the word: a chef code needs duties such as planning menus, ordering, costing and supervising others.

What the code changes, country by country:

• Australia. Chef and Cook are both on the Core Skills Occupation List, with caveats excluding factory mass production and limited service restaurants. The income threshold is A$79,423 for either. The mandatory skills assessment list does not include Japan.
• Canada. Chefs are TEER 2 and Cooks TEER 3, which matters for Express Entry. For the LMIA, the wage against the provincial threshold decides the stream, not the code.
• United Kingdom. 5434 Chefs is medium skilled and 5435 Cooks is ineligible. Because 5434 is on neither the Immigration Salary List nor the Temporary Shortage List, new overseas chef sponsorship is effectively closed either way.
• United States. There is no chef visa, but the code sets the prevailing wage for H-2B and PERM. The May 2025 median was $62,470 for 35-1011 and $37,390 for 35-2014.
• Singapore and Malaysia. Salary is the gate for the passes a chef would use, so the title matters mainly for setting a salary that clears it. Singapore's Shortage Occupation List, which adds COMPASS points, does not include chef.

Full detail: visa sponsorship for Japanese chefs.

What each station means the person can run

A classical Japanese kitchen is organised by station, and people move up by holding each one. Houses and regions use the words differently, so read this as a guide, then test it with the questions below.

The trap for Western readers is nikata. "Simmering station" sounds junior. In a kaiseki kitchen it controls the dashi and seasoning that everything else rests on, and the person holding it is being prepared to run the kitchen. At a sushi counter, the head is the 大将 and the person beside them is the 二番手 or 脇板; the one who has served guests alone on the head's day off is much closer to ready than one who has only prepped.

Reading seniority from a Japanese CV

This is a fictional 職務経歴書 (work history), laid out the way most candidates write it, with what each line tells you.

Four rules for reading it. Count years at the highest station, not total years. Note the size of each house: nikata at a 12 seat counter and at a 200 seat ryōtei are different jobs. "担当" means responsible for a station; "長" means in charge of people. And a line that says 独立 (went independent) followed by a return to employment usually means a restaurant of their own closed; ask what they learned about running one.

Questions that test a claimed station

Someone who held a station can answer these in detail, with their own numbers and reasons. Someone who watched it answers in general terms. Ask in Japanese if you can.

Then watch them cook. See sushi chef interview questions and testing chef skills remotely.

Kitchen terms vary between houses and regions in Japan; the mappings here are a guide to reading CVs, not formal equivalences. The sample CV is fictional. Immigration classifications are as published in September 2026.