Writing a Job Posting That Works for Chefs in Japan (Template)

When a Japanese restaurant abroad advertises to chefs in Japan, applicants read the posting with a different yardstick from local job ads. In Japan, the items a job posting must state are set by law, and readers are used to seeing them in that order. If something is missing from where it should be, they take it to mean there is something you cannot say.

These are practical notes on writing a job posting that reaches chefs in Japan. They cover how to state pay and days off, how to describe housing, travel and visas, and a template you can copy. How to write the duties themselves is covered in Sushi chef job description.

1. What chefs in Japan actually read in a job posting

For a job abroad, what a chef wants to confirm before applying comes down to roughly five things.

1. How much they will actually keep. Not just the gross figure, but their standard of living after housing, tax and social insurance.
2. How much time off they get. Days off per week, days off per year, and whether they can go home to visit.
3. Whether the visa will really come through. Who pays, how long it takes, and how many years they can stay.
4. What they will be responsible for. Working the counter, mostly prep, or building menus as head chef.
5. What happens if they leave. Conditions for repaying travel costs, contract length, and whether it renews.

Items 1 to 3 have fixed fields in Japanese job postings. Postings for jobs abroad often dismiss them with "negotiable" or "per company policy", and that translates directly into fewer applications.

2. Pay: monthly salary, annual salary and bonuses

Know the figures you will be compared with

The benchmark chefs in Japan have in mind is broadly the domestic market rate. In the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2025 (令和7年賃金構造基本統計調査), food preparation workers had regular monthly cash earnings of ¥286,600 (June 2025) and annual bonuses and special earnings of ¥351,600 (2024). A simple calculation gives an annual income of about ¥3.79 million. When you state pay for a job abroad, write it knowing it will be compared with this.

Use local currency, with yen as a reference only

Contracts are normally in local currency, so state pay in the posting in local currency too. Adding a yen conversion helps readers, but exchange rates move. If you add one, always include the conversion date and the word "reference", for example "US$1 = ¥○ (converted as of September 1, 2026, for reference)". If the converted amount is mistaken for the contract amount, you will have a dispute when the rate moves.

Do not mix monthly, annual and hourly figures

The US and Canada normally use hourly or annual pay, Singapore and Malaysia monthly pay. Any of these is fine, but keep one unit throughout a posting and give the others in brackets.

• Good: "Annual salary US$70,000 (about US$5,833 a month; about US$33.65 an hour based on 40 hours a week)"
• Bad: "From US$5,000 a month + bonus + tips" (no way to tell what is guaranteed and what varies)

Separate "guaranteed" from "track record" for bonuses and tips

Chefs in Japan tend to think of a bonus as something paid every year to some extent, even when it is tied to results. If bonus payments at your restaurant abroad are irregular, it is more honest to write "Bonus: paid according to performance (not guaranteed)" and leave it out of the sample annual income. In countries where tips or service charges are shared, explain the sharing rules in one line (whether the kitchen gets a share, and in what proportion).

If you use fixed overtime pay, write it the Japanese way

If you pay a fixed amount regardless of how much overtime is worked (known in Japan as fixed overtime pay, 固定残業代), the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare gives an example of stating these three points separately in a job posting.

1. Base salary ¥○○ (excluding the fixed overtime allowance)
2. ○○ allowance (¥○○ paid as overtime pay for ○ hours, regardless of whether overtime is worked)
3. Premium pay for overtime beyond ○ hours is paid in addition

Labour law abroad may not require this format, but chefs in Japan are used to it. Writing only "overtime included" reads as a job that assumes long hours.

3. Days off: "shukyu futsuka" and "kanzen shukyu futsuka" are not the same

The way days off are described causes more misunderstanding than anything else in postings for jobs abroad. In Japan, the following distinction is well established.

The distinction is not a legal term, but the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare General Survey on Working Conditions also counts two-day-weekend systems that apply three times a month, every other week, twice a month or once a month separately, as "systems with substantially fewer days off than a full two-day weekend". In other words, if you write "shukyu futsuka", readers brace for "maybe not every week". If staff get two days off every week, write "kanzen shukyu futsuka". That alone changes the impression.

It is also safe to follow the same survey's definition of annual days off. Total annual days off is the sum of weekly days off on which there is no obligation to work under the work rules, and company holidays such as public holidays, the New Year break and summer holidays. Annual paid leave is not included. In the same survey (Reiwa 7), the average total annual days off per company for 2024 was 112.4.

Restaurants abroad will mostly work five days a week, on shifts, with no fixed closing day. In that case, wording like this avoids misunderstanding.

• "Shift work, two days off a week (every week). 104 annual days off + ○ days paid leave"
• "Some weeks with one day off in the busy season (December), made up in January and February"
• "Home leave: once a year, up to ○ consecutive days"

That last line, home leave, is particularly effective in postings for jobs abroad. Under MAFF's Japanese food culture overseas promotion training programme (日本の食文化海外普及人材育成事業), the training plan drawn up by the host restaurant in Japan must include "matters concerning taking leave sufficient to allow a temporary return to the home country". The idea that home leave matters to chefs working across borders is shared on the policy side too (programme details here).

4. Housing, travel and visa support: who pays, how much, for how long

"Housing support", "travel paid", "visa support". Just writing these gives no information. What you need to state is the following.

In some countries, housing or travel is a legal obligation of the employer. For example, under Canada's low-wage LMIA stream the employer pays round-trip travel and must also ensure suitable and affordable housing. Under the US H-2B, the employer also pays round-trip travel. In these cases, writing "paid by the company (required by law)" reassures candidates. A country-by-country breakdown is in Designing housing, travel and relocation allowances.

For visas, write about them only after confirming the route is open. Writing "visa support available" for a country like the UK, where new overseas hiring is effectively closed, hurts both applicants and your business. The situation by country is in our country-by-country guide to work visas for chefs and sushi chefs.

Be careful with travel cost repayment clauses

It is understandable to want a clause like "travel costs must be repaid if you leave within one year". However, Article 16 of Japan's Labour Standards Act prohibits contracts that set a penalty for breach of an employment contract or fix an amount of damages in advance. If the contract is with a Japanese company (a secondment, for example), always check how this provision applies. Some schemes, like Canada's low-wage stream, do not allow travel costs to be recovered from the worker at all. Even with a contract through the local company, it is safest to check with a local professional before adding such a clause.

5. Do not cover social insurance and pensions in one line

Chefs in Japan care about what happens to their employees' pension and health insurance. For local hires, the basics are as follows.

• In countries that have a social security agreement with Japan, according to the Japan Pension Service, a person hired locally by a business in that country joins only that country's social security system. As of June 2, 2026, agreements were in force with 24 countries, including the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, Germany, France, South Korea and China. Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the UAE are not included.
• Japanese nationals living abroad aged 20 to under 65 can join the National Pension on a voluntary basis.

In the posting, write something like "Enrolled in local social insurance (○○). Voluntary enrolment in Japan's National Pension is possible (employee arranges)", and add how health insurance works (whether there is company-paid private health insurance). Health insurance is also something candidates' families care about.

6. The items that are standard in Japanese job postings

In Japan, Article 5-3 of the Employment Security Act requires anyone recruiting workers to state the duties, wages, working hours and other working conditions. From April 1, 2024, the required items were extended to include "the scope of changes to duties", "the scope of changes to place of work" and "the criteria for renewing a fixed-term contract (including any cap on total contract period or number of renewals)".

How far this applies to employers abroad is a case-by-case question, but this is the structure chefs in Japan are used to. The minimum items set out by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare are as follows.

• Duties (immediately after hiring / scope of changes)
• Contract period (whether it renews, renewal criteria, renewal cap)
• Probation period
• Place of work (immediately after hiring / scope of changes)
• Working hours, breaks, days off
• Whether there is overtime
• Wages (with a breakdown if there is fixed overtime pay)
• Insurance coverage
• Measures against passive smoking
• Name of the recruiting person or company

"Scope of changes to place of work" matters most of all for jobs abroad. If transfers to other branches, or to group restaurants in other countries, are possible, say so from the start. Something like "New York restaurant (scope of changes: the company's restaurants in the US)" is enough.

7. A job posting template you can use as is

Below is a template with the items ordered for chefs in Japan. Fill in the "○" parts. All figures are blanks for illustration and do not indicate market rates.

The last line, selection, is often overlooked, but it works very well in postings for jobs abroad. If applicants cannot tell how many interviews there are and how many weeks it takes to decide, they cannot weigh it against their next job search in Japan. For how to structure interviews, see Interview questions for chefs and sushi chefs.

8. Wording that stops applications

• Only "Pay: generous, depending on experience and ability". At least give the minimum. A posting that cannot state pay is read as having a reason not to.
• "A friendly, family atmosphere". A chef who knows no one abroad does not want to know about atmosphere. They want to know how many Japanese staff there are and who will help them get settled.
• Only "visa support available". Without who pays and how long it takes, readers will suspect they will end up paying.
• No days-off field. Japanese job postings always have one, so its absence stands out.
• No photos of the restaurant. One photo each of the counter, the kitchen and the staff meal narrows the gap between what applicants imagine and reality, and helps prevent early resignations after arrival.

Chefs in Japan are in a seller's market: the jobs-to-applicants ratio for food preparation workers was still 2.18 in July 2026. Getting people who have options at home to choose a job abroad starts with stating conditions openly and in a form that is easy to compare. For listing on WashokuJob, see our listing information.

This article is general information, not legal, employment or immigration advice. Obligations to state working conditions and the scope of employer-paid costs vary by country and contract type, and rules change. Before finalising a job posting or employment contract, check the primary sources below and consult a professional where needed.