Japan Recruiting Calendar: Bonus Months, Graduation, Holidays

If you hire chefs from Japan, timing affects who you can reach and when they can start. A chef may wait for a bonus before resigning, a graduate finishes school in March, and a visa takes months. This guide sets out the dates we could verify in official sources (as of September 2026), what they mean for recruiting, and where the evidence runs out.

1. The fixed points in the Japanese year

• School year: 1 April to 31 March. This is set in law for elementary schools and is the general pattern, so most students graduate in March and start work in April.
• Public holidays in 2027, per the Cabinet Office: 1 January, 11 January, 11 February, 23 February, 21 and 22 March, 29 April, 3 to 5 May, 19 July, 11 August, 20 and 23 September, 11 October, 3 and 23 November. The late April and early May cluster is known as Golden Week. Obon in mid-August is not a public holiday, although 11 August (Mountain Day) is.
• Bonus periods: the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) measures summer bonuses as those paid June to August, and year-end bonuses as those paid November to January.

2. Bonus months, and why they matter less in restaurants

Across all industries, bonuses in Japan are substantial. In MHLW's Monthly Labour Survey, establishments that paid a summer bonus in 2025 paid an average of ¥426,337 per worker, and year-end 2025 averaged ¥424,889.

In restaurants the picture is very different:

So for many cooks the bonus is small or absent, and it is unlikely to be the main factor in when they move. For chefs at hotels or large groups, where bonuses may be larger, it can matter. Ask each candidate when their bonus is paid and whether leaving before it would cost them. If it would, either time the start date after it or consider a sign-on payment. More on offers in chef salary negotiation.

The annual Basic Survey on Wage Structure gives a fuller view: for cooks (飲食物調理従事者), annual bonuses averaged ¥351,600 in 2024 against monthly regular pay of ¥286,600 (June 2025). The two surveys differ in coverage and definitions (one is by occupation, the other by industry), so the numbers are not directly comparable.

3. The graduate calendar

For university graduates, the government sets a hiring schedule each year and asks employers to follow it. For students graduating in the 2027 academic year, the schedule agreed on 26 December 2025 is: publicity from 1 March, selection from 1 June, and formal job offers from 1 October. It is a request, not a legal requirement, and the government's own paper notes that the reality is much earlier: surveys found that by April about 70% of students had an informal offer, and by June about 90%. The government plans to review the rules for students graduating from the 2028 academic year onward.

This schedule is aimed at universities. For culinary school students, graduation is usually in March, and we did not find an official hiring schedule specific to culinary schools. Ask each school when students look at job offers (see recruiting from Japanese culinary schools).

4. How quickly a chef can leave

Under Article 627 of Japan's Civil Code, where employment has no fixed term, either party may give notice at any time, and the employment ends two weeks after notice is given. Contracts and work rules may ask for longer notice, and a chef may want to leave on good terms with their current kitchen, especially if they may return to Japan later. In practice, plan for more than two weeks unless the candidate tells you otherwise.

Then add visa time. Some verified lead times: Australia requires two job advertisements of at least four weeks each in the four months before nomination; Canada's low-wage LMIA requires eight consecutive weeks of advertising; US H-2B labour certification is filed 75 to 90 days before the date of need. See budgeting an international chef hire for more.

5. A month-by-month planning calendar

The "what to do" column is our planning suggestion, not data. Adjust it to your own opening dates and the visa route you are using.

6. What the data does not tell you

We looked for official data on which months cooks in Japan change jobs and did not find a monthly breakdown for the occupation. So we cannot tell you that chefs "usually move in April" or "after Obon". What we can say from official data is that demand at home is strong: the MHLW job openings to applicants ratio for food preparation workers (including part-time) was 2.18 in July 2026, against 1.05 for all occupations. Recruit steadily through the year rather than relying on one season. For where chefs look for jobs, see where Japanese chefs look for jobs abroad, and for the ad itself, writing a job ad for chefs in Japan.

General information, not legal or immigration advice. Dates and schedules change each year; check the current year's official announcements before planning a hire.