Hello. This is Takeuchi from IMS Legal Professional Corporation. It's been getting colder recently, and as we feel winter approaching, you'll probably be visiting restaurants and other establishments for year-end parties and other events more often. In this article, I'd like to talk about the employment qualifications required to work at such restaurants.
1. Specified Skilled Worker (Food Service)
This is a system that accepts foreign workers who have a certain level of expertise and skills. Workers on this status can contribute immediately as workers in order to address the serious labor shortage in some industrial sectors where it is difficult to secure human resources.
When checking the activities of this "Specified Skilled Worker (Food Service)" on the Immigration Services Agency's website, it is a wide range of activities, including not only cooking and serving customers, but also shift management, creating and revising work manuals, and planning and developing menus. It is truly a qualification that allows you to work in a store as an "immediate asset." In addition, you can work not only in regular restaurants, but also in takeaway and food service establishments.
Requirements
- Pass a specified skills assessment test
- Japanese Language Proficiency Test N4 or above
You can stay in Japan for a maximum of 5 years (renewed every year), but after that you will not be able to stay unless you change your status of residence to another one. Please note that this 5-year period of stay does not count towards the required stay history for permanent residence application.
2. Designated Activities (Project to develop human resources to promote Japanese food culture overseas)
This is a program run by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries that aims to train foreign chefs in Japan and promote the spread of Japanese food culture after they return to their home countries. This system allows people who have graduated from a culinary or confectionery school to continue learning skills at restaurants (businesses) related to Japanese food culture.
Qualified applicants
- Cooks (including those who have qualified to apply)
- Confectionery hygiene specialists (including those who have qualified to apply)
The maximum period of stay is set at 5 years. As you can see from the business overview, this is a status of residence that assumes the applicant will return to their home country. In addition, compared to the "Specified Skilled Worker (Food Service)", the activities are "specialized in work that requires skills such as cooking (including confectionery and bread making)".
3. Skilled Labor (Chef)
The Immigration Services Agency's standard defines this status of residence as "a person engaged in work that requires skills related to cooking or food manufacturing that were invented overseas and are unique in Japan."
This basically means, "authentic cuisine prepared by veteran chefs in the home country."
Qualified applicants
- More than 10 years of work experience (excluding Thai chefs)
You will need to submit a certificate of past employment as evidence of your experience, and that the restaurant or other institution you are affiliated with will also consider the menu (specialty) and number of seats (store size). In addition, this qualification is granted in recognition of your "skilled cooking skills in your home country," so you cannot do anything other than cooking. You cannot serve customers or handle accounting at the cash register.
4. Designated Activities No. 46
This qualification allows you to engage in a wide range of work by utilizing the academic achievements (specialized knowledge) you have acquired at a university or other institution with high Japanese language proficiency. This qualification also allows you to work in the service industry and manufacturing, which are simple jobs that are not usually recognized under the "Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services" qualification.
Requirements
- Graduate of a Japanese university (graduate school), a Japanese junior college, or a technical college (foreign schools are not acceptable)
- Japanese Language Proficiency Test N1 or BJT Japanese Language Proficiency Test score of 480 or higher
- ※Or, graduate of a Japanese university or graduate school with a major in "Japanese"
Examples of activities
- Store management work and customer service work that also doubles as an interpreter at a restaurant
- On a factory line, communicate work instructions received from Japanese employees in a foreign language to other foreign employees while also working on the line yourself (※Excerpt from the guidelines)
Workers on this status cannot work primarily for simple labor such as customer service or assembly line work, and can only perform the above-mentioned simple labor as ancillary tasks. The main focus needs to be work that requires smooth communication in Japanese, such as "translation and interpretation." This is a key point that must be observed.
You may find it even more enjoyable if you look at a store from the perspective that people with various residence statuses come together in one location to liven it up. Thank you for reading.
For more information, please contact us below ↓
https://imsvisa.support/en/contact/