A French medical-device maker with a 25-person Tokyo subsidiary needs a bilingual regulatory-affairs manager and four clinical-support staff for a six-month product roll-out in Osaka and Nagoya. The country manager asks one “staffing partner” to cover both. The partner proposes placing the manager and dispatching the four support staff.
Then the questions start. Headquarters wants to interview the dispatch candidates first, and the partner explains that Japanese dispatch rules expect clients not to pre-select dispatched workers. Finance baulks at a 35% fee calculated on the manager’s “theoretical annual income”, bonus months included. And when one support specialist proves outstanding, headquarters wants to hire her directly in month two, only to find a direct-hire clause and fee in the dispatch contract. None of it was hidden. It was all in rules the company had never read.
Japan is an agency market. For mid-career hiring, tenshoku (career-change) agents are often the main route, and dispatch staffing is a large, separately regulated business. Both need licences from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), and the line between them shapes how you can select, manage and convert people. This guide explains the rules and prices, profiles 15 firms and ends with a question set for briefing an agent. For channels, pay conventions and the graduate calendar, read the Japan recruiting playbook in our Finding the Right Person hub.
Listings are editorial and independent; no firm paid to be included, and inclusion is not a recommendation. Check licences, terms and references directly with each firm. For other markets, see the global guide to HR consulting and recruitment firms.
In short
Fee-charging placement (shōkai) and worker dispatch (haken) are separate MHLW-licensed businesses; the ministry’s database shows each agency’s licence, fees and refund policy.
Contingency fees typically run around 30–40% of the hire’s theoretical annual income (base, bonus and fixed allowances), with a sliding refund if the hire leaves early.
Dispatch suits cover and projects but has rules: a three-year cap per worker in the same unit, equal-pay requirements, and no pre-selection interviews except in temp-to-perm arrangements.
Tenshoku agents dominate domestic mid-career hiring; bilingual firms serve foreign-affiliated companies; retained search is mostly for executives.
HR consultancies supply pay surveys, job grading and aptitude tests such as SPI; set the band before agents quote it.
How Japan’s recruitment and HR-services market works
Under the Employment Security Act, introducing job seekers to employers for a fee requires an MHLW fee-charging placement licence; a Tokyo agency’s number starts with the prefecture code 13. Agencies charge either a capped fee (roughly 11% of the first six months’ wages) or a schedule filed with the ministry, which almost every commercial agency uses. The filed figure is a ceiling, often up to half of first-year pay; your contract sets the real rate. The ministry’s Human Resources Services database lets you look up any licence and read the agency’s filed fee table and refund policy. It also shows the number of people placed and how many left within six months.
In practice, contingency fees of around 30–35% of theoretical annual income (base plus expected bonus and fixed allowances) are common, rising towards 40% for scarce bilingual or technical profiles. Refunds usually slide: a large share back if the hire leaves in the first month, less within three months. MHLW guidelines add two rules worth knowing. Since April 2021, agencies may not lure candidates with cash “congratulation” payments beyond what is socially acceptable. And an agency must not encourage someone it placed to change jobs again within two years. Retained search exists, mainly for executives, but many senior searches still run on contingency, often through scouting databases such as BizReach.
Large Japanese agencies usually split the work between a recruiting adviser for your account and a career adviser for the candidate; bilingual firms often use one consultant for both. Ask who will actually present your role. Compare these terms with other markets in the agency fees by country guide.
Typical contingency feeAbout 30–40% of theoretical annual income
Refund normSliding refund if the hire leaves in the first months
Retained search normExecutive and board roles
Dispatch limits3-year cap per worker per unit; no pre-selection
Main business hubsTokyo, Osaka/Kansai, Nagoya
Data-protection lawAct on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI)
Shōkai, haken or temp-to-perm: the legal line that shapes staffing
In jinzai shōkai (placement) the candidate becomes your employee, and the agency’s job ends at the hire. In jinzai haken (dispatch) the agency employs the worker and you direct the daily work. That needs a separate worker-dispatch licence and brings its own rules. A dispatched worker can stay in the same organisational unit for no more than three years. Equal-pay rules, in force since 2020, require the agency to match the pay of your comparable staff or follow a negotiated labour-management agreement. Day dispatch of 30 days or less is generally banned, and some work, such as construction, port transport and security, cannot be dispatched at all. The law also asks clients not to pre-select dispatched workers by interview or CV, and agencies are told not to cooperate.
The exception is shōkai yotei haken (temp-to-perm). Dispatch lasts up to six months with a direct hire intended at the end, interviews are allowed, and the agency charges a placement fee on conversion. If you expect to want to keep someone, set it up this way from the start. It is cleaner than negotiating a direct-hire clause in month two.
The three agency routes in Japan and who employs the worker in each. Simplified; check licence scope and contract terms with each agency.
Watch outDo not paper over dispatch with an outsourcing or consulting contract (ukeoi or gyōmu itaku) when your managers in fact direct the workers day to day. This “disguised contracting” is illegal, as is taking dispatched workers from an unlicensed provider. Under the deemed-offer rule in force since 2015, a client that knowingly accepts illegal dispatch can be treated as having offered those workers direct employment on the same terms.
Tenshoku agents, bilingual recruiters and staffing firms
Domestic agents give you reach into Japanese-language candidates nationwide; bilingual firms specialise in people who can work in English and Japanese for foreign-affiliated companies. If you have no entity in Japan yet, read hiring without an entity first: agencies need an employer to place people with.
Recruit AgentTenshoku agent · Recruit group
LocalMid-careerAll functions
WhereNationwide service of the Recruit group
Best forDomestic mid-career hiring across functions and regions
Pricing modelSuccess fee on hire; free to candidates
Career advisers match registered job seekers with listings, including non-public ones, and coach them on CVs and interviews. Employers pay only when a hire is made.
doda (PERSOL CAREER)Board, agent & scout · PERSOL group
LocalMid-careerScouting
WhereNationwide service of PERSOL CAREER
Best forMid-career hiring with a job board, agent and scouting in one place
Pricing modelListing plans; success fee for agent placements
Combines a job board, an agent service offering career consultation and referrals, and a scout service through which companies approach registered candidates directly.
WhereJapan-wide, with offices across Asia and in the UK, Germany and the US
Best forManager, specialist and executive hires, often bilingual
Pricing modelSuccess fee; executive search and RPO by agreement
Cites more than 50 years of history. Employer services include executive search (JAC Executive), next-generation leader and digital-talent hiring, interim professionals and RPO.
WhereTokyo; serves foreign-owned and Japanese global companies
Best forManager-to-executive bilingual hires and professional contractors
Pricing modelSuccess fee; contractor billing; RPO by agreement
Offers permanent placement, professional contracting, executive search and RPO, mainly at manager-to-executive level in finance, IT, consulting, life sciences, manufacturing and energy.
RGF Professional Recruitment JapanBilingual recruitment · RGF brand family
Bilingual360° modelSpecialists
WhereTokyo; sister brands in China and India
Best forBilingual specialists and managers for multinationals and global Japanese firms
Pricing modelSuccess fee on hire
Uses a 360-degree model in which one consultant handles both client and candidate, with teams in IT and engineering, healthcare, manufacturing, finance and consulting.
Robert Walters JapanBilingual recruitment · International group
InternationalBilingualPerm & contract
WhereTokyo and Osaka
Best forBilingual professionals, contract staff and outsourced recruitment
Pricing modelContingency; contract billing; RPO and MSP by agreement
Covers permanent hiring, executive search and temporary or contract hiring, plus RPO, MSP and offshoring, across 19 specialisms from finance and automotive to semiconductors and IT.
Michael Page JapanProfessional recruitment · International group
InternationalBilingualInterim
WhereTokyo (Minato-ku)
Best forProfessional and managerial hires; temp, contract and interim cover
Pricing modelContingency; temp and interim rates
Lists permanent recruitment, dispatch and contract staffing, executive interim placements and leadership hiring, with specialist teams including IT, finance, marketing, life sciences, sales and legal.
Best forDispatch staff, temp-to-perm hiring and project staffing
Pricing modelHourly bill rate for dispatch; fee on direct hire
Its job-seeker site centres on dispatch work, temp-to-perm (shōkai yotei haken) and permanent roles, with a separate career-agent service and project staffing.
For representative directors, country heads and board roles, retained search buys a structured market map and direct approaches to people who will never register with an agent. Japanese executives move cautiously, so expect longer searches and more meetings before a candidate commits. For choosing between search and other channels, see which hiring channel for which role.
Search Firm JapanExecutive search · Japanese
LocalExecutivesNetwork
WhereTokyo (Kojimachi, Chiyoda-ku)
Best forJapanese executive and senior specialist searches
Pricing modelSearch fees agreed per assignment
A Tokyo headhunting firm that scouts and introduces senior people at clients’ request, citing a network across industry, academia and government.
Stanton Chase TokyoExecutive search · International network
InternationalLeadership advisory
WhereTokyo office of the Stanton Chase network
Best forExecutive search and leadership advisory
Pricing modelRetained search; staged fees
An executive search and leadership advisory office within an international network. Ask who leads your search and in which language candidates will be approached.
HR consultancies for grading, pay data and assessment
Foreign companies in Japan often get pay wrong rather than sourcing: they quote base salary when candidates think in annual income with bonus months, or they set grades that do not map to Japanese titles. Reward consultancies sell survey data and job-grading work, and assessment firms supply the aptitude tests many Japanese employers use in selection. Settle the band first with our pay-band question set.
Recruit Management SolutionsAssessment & HR consulting · Recruit group
LocalSPI3Training
WhereTokyo
Best forAptitude testing, HR systems and leadership development
Pricing modelPer-candidate test fees; consulting and training by project
Publisher of the SPI3 aptitude test used in Japanese hiring and the NMAT test for managerial candidates, alongside HR-system, talent and organisation development consulting and open training courses.
Mercer JapanRewards & HR consulting · International
InternationalPay surveysHR systems
WhereTokyo; Mercer says it is becoming Marsh
Best forPay benchmarking, executive rewards and HR-system redesign
Pricing modelSurvey participation or data purchase; consulting by project
Runs a Total Remuneration Survey that it says covers more than 1,600 organisations, including over 880 Japanese companies, plus HR-system transformation, talent assessment and executive rewards work.
Briefing an agent in Japan so the agent can sell your role
Agents put their effort into clients whose processes close. Give them a job sheet (kyūjin-hyō) in Japanese, an hour with the hiring manager, the pay as annual income with bonus months spelled out, and a realistic view of how much English the role needs. Keep the process to two or three interview rounds and give feedback within 48 hours. Expect notice periods of one to three months in practice, and a resignation conversation the agent will often help the candidate through.
● Before you engage a recruitment or HR firm in Japan · 11 questions
1What are your placement and dispatch licence numbers?Check them on the MHLW database, along with the filed fee table and refund policy.
2What exactly is the fee base: base salary only, or theoretical annual income including bonus and allowances?The difference can be several months’ pay. Agree the formula and any minimum fee in writing.
3What is your refund schedule if the hire leaves within one, three or six months?Compare schedules across agencies; they vary more than headline fees.
4Who will present our role to candidates, and is that the same person we brief?Two-adviser models can lose nuance between the account manager and the candidate side.
5How much Japanese and English does your proposed candidate pool really have?Every notch of English you require shrinks the pool. Agree what “business level” means.
6Which channels will you use: your database, scouting platforms or direct approach?If two agencies use the same database, you are paying twice for the same candidates.
7Which companies are off-limits to you?Large agencies serve many employers in your sector.
8For dispatch: how is the worker’s pay set under the equal-pay rules, and what does the bill rate include?You must give the agency information on comparable staff, and the margin should be visible.
9What is the direct-hire fee if we want to keep a dispatched worker, and could temp-to-perm work better?Settle conversion terms before day one.
10What salary data supports your advice for this role?Agents shape candidates’ expectations; align their view with your band.
11For HR consultancies: which grading method and survey will you use, and can we keep using the data afterwards?Survey licences and grading frameworks should outlive the project.
Consultant’s noteSend the same Japanese job sheet and pay band to every agency on the same day, and agree that the first agency to submit a named, consented candidate owns that introduction. It stops two agents presenting the same person at different salaries. Then run the final decision through your own structured interviews and scorecard. For visas and contracts, see the Japan expat-hiring compliance guide.
Your next move
Decide per role whether you need placement, dispatch or temp-to-perm before you call anyone.
Check each agency’s licence, fee table and refund policy on the MHLW database.
Write the kyūjin-hyō in Japanese with annual income, bonus months, location, duties and English level.
Agree the fee base, refund schedule, off-limits and candidate-ownership terms in writing.
Commit internally to feedback within 48 hours and no more than three interview rounds.
Get pay survey data or a grading review before your first senior offer.
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Last Updated: November 2026 · Reviewed by the Kurums HR editorial team. This guide is general information, not legal advice; employment and advertising rules change, so confirm requirements with local counsel before you post.
