Employment and Graduation Certificates From Japan for a Chef's Visa

A work visa application for a chef has to show, on paper, how many years the chef worked, where, and doing what. Employment certificates and graduation certificates issued in Japan are in Japanese, and every employer uses its own format. Translate one as it stands and you often find it leaves out exactly what the visa officer needs.

These are practical notes for a Japanese restaurant abroad bringing a chef over from Japan: what certificates to ask the candidate for, and in what form. Translation rules differ by country, so the official requirements of the main destinations are set out side by side.

1. Why visa officers look closely at career documents

Most work visas open to chefs require qualifications, work experience or both. For example:

• Australia, Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482): at least 1 year of relevant work experience. The Department of Home Affairs says a work reference on its own is not enough evidence of employment and asks for supporting documents such as payslips, 3 months of bank statements or tax statements.
• Germany, specialty cooks (Spezialitätenköche): 2 years of culinary school plus 2 years of work experience, so you need both a graduation certificate and an employment certificate. The route is outlined in our Germany guide.
• Singapore, Employment Pass: to earn points under the COMPASS qualifications criterion (C2), you submit verification proof of the qualification. The Ministry of Manpower states that educational certificates certified by a notary public and school letters are not accepted as verification proof; the check has to come from one of its listed background screening companies.

So the question is not whether a certificate exists, but whether its content lets the officer decide that the requirement is met.

2. What an employment certificate should contain

Japan has no set format for an employment certificate (在職証明書). For people who have left a job, however, Article 22 of the Labour Standards Act requires the employer to issue a certificate without delay when the worker asks for one, covering "the period of employment, the type of work, the position held, wages, or the reason for leaving". Paragraph 3 of the same article prohibits the employer from including anything the worker did not request. The reliable approach is therefore to have the candidate request each item explicitly.

For a visa application, ask for the following.

The two items that matter most are weekly hours and how the chef's position changed over time. They decide whether the experience was full time and from when the chef was doing a fully qualified cook's job, which in turn affects how the years are counted. A single line saying "worked as itamae" tells the officer nothing. Japanese kitchen titles mean little outside Japan, so the English version should explain the duties. Our guide to Japanese kitchen roles helps with the equivalents.

Letterhead and contact details

Assume the officer may contact the employer. Ask for the certificate on company letterhead, with the name and details of someone who can confirm it. A small owner-run restaurant with no letterhead can still produce a usable document if it gives the restaurant name, address, telephone number and the owner's signature.

3. Graduation certificates and culinary school records

For graduates of a licensed cook training school (調理師養成施設), ask for the graduation certificate and, where useful, the academic transcript. Whether a school can issue these in English varies, so have the candidate ask the school office. If the school issues them in English, no translation is needed.

The cook's licence (調理師免許) is a separate document from the school record. For a chef who obtained the licence by graduating from a training school, submitting both the licence and the graduation certificate makes the history consistent. How to translate and certify the licence is covered in translating the Japanese cook's licence.

4. Who may translate: the rules by country

Japanese documents need an English translation. The question is how to show who translated them, and the answer differs by country. These are the requirements we could confirm on official sources as of September 2026.

For the US, the translator's certification usually takes the form of a statement at the end of the translation saying that the translator is competent in Japanese and English and that the translation is complete and accurate, followed by name, signature and date. Some countries do not expressly forbid the candidate translating their own documents, but a third party is the safer choice if you want the file to be trusted. Some countries, as Canada's affidavit shows, require the translator to swear a statement before an authorised official, so check the destination's rules before commissioning a translation.

For UK work visas, bear in mind that new sponsorship of chefs (SOC 5434) is effectively closed. See our UK guide.

5. When notarisation or an apostille is needed

Most visa applications are made by uploading scans and do not ask for notarisation, but some countries or procedures require proof that a document is authentic. On the Japanese side the steps run in this order.

1. Notarisation: a private document such as an employment certificate or a translation is first authenticated by a notary at a notary office (公証役場). The Japan National Notaries Association handles authentication of private documents for use abroad as "foreign document authentication" (外国文認証).
2. Legal Affairs Bureau certificate: the director of the Legal Affairs Bureau to which the notary belongs certifies that the authentication was made by that notary.
3. Ministry of Foreign Affairs certificate: an apostille if the destination is party to the Hague Apostille Convention; otherwise an official seal certificate (公印確認), followed by legalisation at that country's embassy or consulate in Japan.

According to the Japan National Notaries Association, notary offices in Tokyo, Kanagawa, Shizuoka, Aichi, Osaka, Hokkaido (Sapporo Legal Affairs Bureau district only), Miyagi and Fukuoka offer a one-stop service that attaches the Legal Affairs Bureau certificate and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs certificate in one go (as of October 2022, per the association). The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also warns that attaching a translation to a public document makes it a private document.

6. When a former employer will not issue a certificate

Chefs' careers often include restaurants that have closed or a former head chef who is hard to reach.

• Employers must respond to a former employee's request: as noted above, Article 22 of the Labour Standards Act obliges the employer to issue a certificate on leaving. The first step is for the candidate to send a written request listing the items needed.
• Gather supporting evidence: as Australia's Home Affairs notes, payslips and tax documents support a claimed work history. In Japan that means the year-end withholding slip (源泉徴収票), payslips and a copy of the employment contract.
• Restaurants that have closed: options include a statement from the former owner personally or from a former colleague, but whether these are accepted is up to the receiving authority. Ask the candidate to write an explanation of any gap and check the authority's instructions.

The lesson in every case: if you start collecting documents after the job offer, you are already late. Asking at interview whether the candidate can get certificates from past employers gives you an early read on the visa. How to verify a work history is covered in reference checks for chefs from Japan.

7. An English employment certificate template

You can pass this wording to the Japanese employer if they are willing to issue the certificate in English. A certificate issued directly in English needs no translator's certification (if a Japanese version is also submitted, the two must match).

Spell the name exactly as in the passport. If Hepburn and other romanisations are mixed across documents, confirming that they all refer to the same person takes longer.

8. Checklist before you submit

• The name is spelled as in the passport
• Dates of employment include day, month and year, with no overlaps or unexplained gaps between jobs (prepare an explanation if there are)
• Weekly working hours are stated
• Duties are explained in English, not just job titles
• The signatory's signature, title, date of issue and a contact for verification are included
• The translation carries the translator details the authority requires (certification statement, name, signature, contact details, NAATI number)
• You have checked the authority's current guidance on whether notarisation or an apostille is needed
• Supporting documents (graduation certificate, cook's licence, payslips) are translated too

Paperwork is the dull part of a visa application, but a document sent back for correction can delay a start date by weeks. For visa options by country see our country visa overview, and for the English language counterpart of this topic see employment certificate translation for visas.

General information, not legal or immigration advice. Translation and authentication requirements vary by country, visa type and date. Always check the receiving authority's current guidance before applying, and consult a professional where needed.