Opening in Taiwan: Who Employs Your Japanese Head Chef?

Taiwan has more than 7,000 Japanese restaurants, and food exports from Japan reached a record in 2025. There is a system for employing Japanese chefs: chef work in the food and beverage industry is recognised as specialised work that foreigners may do. But the employer has to meet tests such as a turnover threshold, so a restaurant that has only just opened may not qualify as the employer. A staffing plan for Taiwan starts with deciding who the employer will be.

This article is written for a Japanese restaurant company or owner opening in Taiwan, particularly Taipei. The chef's own requirements and the application steps are covered in Hiring a Japanese chef in Taiwan.

1. Taiwan in numbers

Japanese restaurants fell by 340 in two years, but at 7,100 the market is very large relative to the Japanese population. There may be a substantial number of Taiwanese cooks with Japanese cuisine experience, so the scope for local hiring may be greater than the number of Japanese residents suggests.

2. Chefs are eligible for work permits

The Ministry of Labor's Workforce Development Agency (WDA) lists chef work in the food and beverage industry (從事餐飲業之廚師工作) among the categories of specialised work open to foreign professionals. It sits under Article 4, item 15 of the relevant qualification standards, so employing a Japanese chef is possible under the system.

On pay, the average monthly salary paid to a foreign worker in this category may not be lower than the amount announced by the Ministry of Labor. The amount currently published is NT$47,971 a month.

3. The first hurdle for a new restaurant: the turnover test

A restaurant employer must meet a turnover threshold of NT$10 million or more. Two problems follow for an opening plan.

• A company that has not yet opened has no turnover. We could not access the original text of the regulation for this article, so we could not confirm the conditions under which a newly established company can act as employer. Check with the WDA or an adviser in Taiwan.
• NT$10 million of turnover is a high bar for a small restaurant. A counter restaurant with few seats may not reach it even after opening.

4. Who will be the employer?

With the turnover test in mind, each way of entering the market raises different questions.

Whichever route you take, decide what employment contract the Japanese head chef will have and with which company at the same time as you design the corporate structure. Leaving people until after the structure is fixed means expensive rework.

5. Working holidays and Japanese residents

The Japan and Taiwan working holiday arrangement has a large annual quota of 10,000 (MOFA, as of 1 April 2026), which makes it a realistic way to hire young cooks and front of house staff for a fixed period. See hiring on working holidays.

33.6% of Japanese nationals in Taiwan are permanent residents, a relatively high share for Asia. Some Japanese people settled in Taiwan may have restaurant experience. When you hire, check that their residence status allows them to work.

6. Building it into the opening schedule

How to work back from the opening date is covered in staffing an overseas opening.

7. Checklist

• Have you decided which company will employ the head chef?
• Will that company meet the turnover and other tests at the time of application? (If it is new, have you asked the WDA about the conditions?)
• Is the head chef's monthly pay at least NT$47,971?
• Are working holiday makers in the plan as fixed term staff?
• Have you checked the work rights of Japanese residents you hire locally?

General information, not legal or immigration advice. This reflects what we could confirm as of September 2026. The conditions for a newly established company acting as employer are not confirmed in this article. Check with the Workforce Development Agency and an adviser in Taiwan.