Opening a Japanese Restaurant Abroad: 16-Week Staffing Timeline

A new Japanese restaurant abroad usually opens with a small core of chefs from Japan or from head office, and a larger local team hired in the last few months. The core team's timeline is driven by visas and is covered in staffing plan for opening overseas. This guide covers what comes after: the order in which to hire everyone else, and a week by week plan for the final 16 weeks before opening day.

1. What this timeline covers

It assumes that by 16 weeks before opening you have:

• A signed lease and a realistic fit-out completion date.
• A menu concept and a target number of covers and opening hours.
• A decision on who will run the kitchen, and the visa route for anyone coming from Japan already under way.

If the visa route for the head chef is not yet under way at 16 weeks, the opening date is probably at risk. See visa sponsorship for a Japanese chef and the country guides.

2. Lead times you cannot shorten

Some steps have legal minimums. Put them in the plan first and work backwards. Examples verified from official sources:

Details and sources for each are in LMIA step by step, hiring in Australia, H-2B for restaurant cooks, hiring in Malaysia and food safety certification by country. Note that in the UK, new overseas sponsorship for chefs is not currently available in practice, so plan on staff who already have the right to work (see UK hospitality hiring without sponsorship).

3. Working out the headcount

There is no official ratio of staff to covers for Japanese restaurants, and we do not suggest one. Build your own from the rota, not the other way round:

1. Draw the stations. Sushi counter, cold kitchen, hot line (fryer, grill, stove), prep, dishwash, pass. Front of house: host, floor, bar.
2. Mark who must be on each station for each service, at the covers you expect in the first three months, not at full capacity.
3. Turn the rota into hours per week, then into full time equivalents under local working time rules and the rest days you promise.
4. Add cover for sickness, holidays and training. New teams also need extra hands in the first weeks while everyone learns the menu.
5. Mark the roles only a trained Japanese chef can do (for example, breaking down fish, nigiri at the counter). If only one person can do a job, you need a plan for their day off.

4. Hiring order, role by role

1. Head chef and general manager (12 months or more before opening, especially if visas are involved). They shape everything that follows.
2. Sous chef or second chef who can run the kitchen when the head chef is off.
3. Supervisors: floor manager, bar lead, and a kitchen supervisor who speaks the local language well and can bridge both teams (see cross-cultural kitchen management).
4. Specialists: sushi chefs, sake sommelier, pastry.
5. Line cooks and prep cooks.
6. Front of house team.
7. Kitchen porters and dishwashers, last but not least: the kitchen stops without them.

For role descriptions, see Japanese kitchen roles explained and front of house hiring.

5. The 16 weeks before opening

6. Where openings usually slip

• Fit-out delays. Staff hired for a date that moves may take other jobs. Keep in touch weekly and be honest about the new date; consider paid training days if the delay is short.
• A visa decision that arrives late. Have a plan for opening with a reduced menu, or with a temporary chef who already has the right to work, if the head chef from Japan is not there on day one.
• One person holding every certificate. If only the head chef is the certified food safety person, you are exposed the day they are sick. Certify a second person.
• No time to train. Two weeks of training for a new team is short. Protect it; do not fill it with fit-out tasks.
• Hiring exactly to the rota. See the callout above.

For costs, see overseas washoku hiring costs. For the job ads themselves, see writing a job ad for chefs in Japan.

General information, not legal or immigration advice. Lead times and rules shown were checked in September 2026 and change; confirm with the relevant authority before fixing an opening date.