Japanese Kitchen Roles Explained: Itamae, Nikata and Who You Actually Need

"We need a sushi chef" covers everything from a twenty-year-old prepping maki to a shokunin who has spent three decades behind a counter. Getting the vocabulary right is not pedantry — it changes who applies to your ad, what they expect to be paid, and in several countries whether they can be sponsored at all.

1. Why the titles matter when you hire

• Candidates search by title. Someone looking for the next step in their career searches the rank they want, not the rank you happen to call it internally.
• Pay expectations attach to titles. Advertising a "head chef" role at station-chef money wastes everyone's time.
• Immigration classifications are occupation-based. Australia distinguishes Chef (ANZSCO 351311) from Cook (351411). Canada distinguishes Chefs (NOC 62200, TEER 2) from Cooks (NOC 63200, TEER 3). The UK treats SOC 5434 Chefs and 5435 Cooks entirely differently — one is medium skilled, the other ineligible. The word you put on the nomination form matters.

2. The traditional Japanese kitchen ladder

A classical Japanese kitchen is organised by station and seniority. The terms below are the ones you will see on Japanese CVs.

The progression in a classical kitchen runs roughly oimawashi → ageba → yakikata → mukōita → nikata → sous → head chef, though modern kitchens compress it heavily. When you read a Japanese CV, the stations listed tell you more about the person's real level than the years do.

3. Sushi counter roles

Two things worth knowing when you interview. First, shari — the seasoned rice — is often guarded as the most sensitive job in the room, and a chef's account of how they make and hold it is a fast way to gauge seriousness. Second, counter work is a service role as well as a cooking role. A technically superb chef who cannot talk to guests is the wrong hire for an omakase counter and the right hire for a back kitchen.

4. Teppanyaki, ramen, and other specialists

Teppanyaki chef. Cooks on a flat iron griddle in front of guests. It is a performance role: knife showmanship, timing across a full table, continuous guest interaction. In North America the same role is commonly advertised as a "hibachi chef" — technically a different piece of equipment, but the usage is settled, and using both words once in an ad widens your reach.

Ramen chef. A different discipline again, closer to production cooking than to counter craft. Broth is the job: style, hours, batch size, consistency. Then tare, aroma oil, noodle handling and chashu. Early starts are inherent.

Tempura chef. A specialism in its own right in Japan, with counters devoted to it. Oil temperature management and batter handling, cooked to order in front of the guest.

Unagi, soba and udon specialists. Each is a distinct trade in Japan with its own apprenticeship. A soba chef who mills and cuts their own buckwheat is not interchangeable with a general Japanese cook, and should not be advertised for as one.

Kaiseki chef. Multi-course seasonal cuisine, the most technically demanding end of the trade. Expect a long station-by-station CV and a correspondingly senior salary expectation.

5. Mapping to Western kitchen titles

The trap is nikata. A Western reader sees "simmering station" and files it under vegetables. In a traditional kaiseki kitchen it is the station that controls dashi, seasoning and the backbone of the menu, and the person holding it is being groomed to run the kitchen.

6. Which one does your restaurant actually need

7. How the title affects the visa

This is the practical reason to care about all of the above.

• Australia. Both Chef (351311) and Cook (351411) are on the Core Skills Occupation List, each with caveats excluding factory mass production and limited-service restaurants. The Core Skills Income Threshold is A$79,423 for 2026–27 regardless of which you nominate. Notably, the mandatory Trades Recognition Australia skills assessment for Chef applies only to passport holders from a listed group of countries, and Japan is not among them.
• Canada. Chefs are NOC 62200 at TEER 2; Cooks are NOC 63200 at TEER 3. The stream you land in is decided by the wage offered against the provincial threshold, not by the code.
• United Kingdom. The split is decisive: SOC 5434 Chefs is "medium skilled", SOC 5435 Cooks is "ineligible". Neither helps much in practice, since 5434 is on neither the Immigration Salary List nor the Temporary Shortage List, which closes the route to newly recruited overseas chefs.
• Singapore and Malaysia. Neither runs an occupation list for the relevant passes. Salary is the gate, so the title matters mainly for setting the right salary band.

Full detail on each in visa sponsorship for Japanese chefs, and on the pay bands attached to each level in salary benchmarks by country.

Terminology varies between houses and regions in Japan, and the mappings above are guidance for reading CVs, not formal equivalences. Immigration classifications are as published in September 2026; verify against the official sources below.