Employer of Record in Japan: 18 Providers Compared (2026)

Employing someone in Japan: key facts

Amounts are in nominal yen. Social-insurance figures are for Tokyo (23 wards), an employee under 40 in an office or IT role, from the March 2026 payroll.

Minimum wage

Japan has no single national rate: each prefecture sets an hourly minimum, and industry-specific minimums apply on top for named industries.

• The FY2026 amounts are those approved by the regional councils; effective dates can still change after objection procedures (MHLW press release, 2026-09-03, checked 2026-10-27).

Employer contributions

Employer shares of social insurance for a Tokyo hire under 40 (Kyokai Kenpo Tokyo table, checked 2026-10-27).

• Total about 15.70% of pay. Employees aged 40-64 add nursing-care insurance of 0.81% (half of 1.62%) on the health base: about 16.51%.
• Health insurance rates differ by prefecture: Tokyo 9.85%, Kanagawa 9.92%, Niigata 9.21%.
• Bonuses carry premiums too: health insurance up to JPY 5,730,000 a year, pension and child-rearing contribution up to JPY 1,500,000 per payment.
• The accident-insurance category was not confirmed for an EOR; software and office work are normally rated at 3/1,000.

Working hours and overtime

• Statutory maximum 40 hours a week and 8 a day, at least one day off a week or 4 days in 4 weeks (Labor Standards Act arts. 32, 35).
• Overtime needs a written 36 agreement filed with the labour standards office (art. 36). Caps: 45 hours a month and 360 a year; a special clause allows under 720 hours a year and under 100 hours in a month, with 45-hour months at most 6 times a year.
• Premiums: at least 25% for overtime, 50% above 60 hours a month, 25% for work between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., 35% on a statutory day off (Labor Standards Act translation, checked 2026-10-27). The 35% rate is set by Cabinet Order and comes from an MHLW leaflet excerpt, not from the Act.

Annual leave and public holidays

• 10 working days of paid leave after 6 months of continuous employment with at least 80% attendance, then 11, 12, 14, 16 and 18 days at 1.5, 2.5, 3.5, 4.5 and 5.5 years, and 20 days from 6.5 years (art. 39). The employer must make the worker take at least 5 days a year once the entitlement is 10 days or more (Labor Standards Act translation, checked 2026-10-27).
• 2026 has 16 national holidays plus two substitute or bridging days (2026-05-06 and 2026-09-22). The Act on National Holidays makes them holidays, but the Labor Standards Act asks a private employer only for one day off a week or 4 in 4 weeks, so the contract or work rules decide (Cabinet Office, checked 2026-10-27). That reading of art. 35 is ours, not a government statement.

Notice and severance

• Dismissal needs at least 30 days’ advance notice, or pay in lieu of the average wage for the shortfall days (art. 20). The rule does not apply where continuing the business has become impossible by a natural disaster or other compelling reason, or where the worker is dismissed for reasons attributable to the worker.
• A worker in a probationary period who has been employed for more than 14 days is covered by the same 30-day rule (art. 21(iv)) (Labor Standards Act translation, checked 2026-10-27).
• An employee resigning from an open-ended contract gives 2 weeks’ notice (Civil Code art. 627) (Osaka Labour Bureau, checked 2026-10-27).
• There is no statutory severance pay; a retirement allowance is due only if the contract or work rules provide it. A dismissal is void unless it has objectively reasonable grounds and is socially appropriate (Labor Contract Act art. 16); a fixed-term contract can be cut short only for unavoidable reasons (art. 17) (Labor Contract Act translation, checked 2026-10-27).
• Fixed-term contracts totalling more than 5 years convert to open-ended on the worker’s request (art. 18).

13th salary and bonuses

Not mandatory. Nothing in the Labor Standards Act requires a bonus or a 13th salary; special wages are paid only where the contract or work rules say so (art. 89(iv)) (Labor Standards Act translation, checked 2026-10-27).

Mandatory benefits

• Employer-registered social insurance for full-time staff: health insurance (Kyokai Kenpo or a company society), employees’ pension, employment insurance and workers’ accident compensation insurance; nursing-care insurance for ages 40-64.
• The child-rearing contribution (employer only) and, from the April 2026 payroll, the child and child-rearing support levy shared with the employee.
• Statutory paid leave under art. 39 (Kyokai Kenpo, checked 2026-10-27).

Work permits

• A foreigner employed in Japan needs a status of residence that allows the work. For office and IT roles the usual one is Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services: a contract with a public or private organisation in Japan, a related degree or 10 years’ experience, and pay equal to or above that of a Japanese in the same job (Immigration Services Agency, checked 2026-10-27).
• Remote work for a foreign employer by a visitor is covered only by the Designated Activities (digital nomad) status: 6 months, no extension, annual income of JPY 10 million or more, and it excludes employment with an organisation in Japan (ISA, checked 2026-10-27).
• From 2026-03-09, applications where the person works in a dispatch form need pledges from the dispatching organisation and the client (ISA notice, checked 2026-10-27). The notice speaks of dispatch, not of EOR by name.
• The pages we read don’t say whether a Japanese EOR entity can be the sponsoring organisation for the Engineer/Specialist status.

Currency and payroll

Japanese yen (JPY). Wages are paid in currency, directly to the worker and in full, at least once a month on a fixed date; deductions beyond those set by law need a written agreement with the majority union or worker representative (art. 24) (Labor Standards Act translation, checked 2026-10-27). Rate used on this page: 1 USD = 157.13 JPY, the Bank of Japan midpoint of 2026-10-26 (BoJ, checked 2026-10-27).

Is Employer of Record legal in Japan?

Grey area. Japan has no EOR statute and no EOR licence. The statute that bites is the Worker Dispatching Act. A Japanese EOR entity that employs the worker while a foreign client directs the daily work fits the dispatch definition on its face, and it can be lawful only through a licensed dispatching operator. That is an inference from the statute: we found no government ruling, court case or law-firm text applying the Act to a foreign client without a Japanese entity. See the Employer of Record glossary entry.

The rules that matter to a client:

• Definition (art. 2(i)). Worker dispatch means having a worker employed by one person do work for another person under the latter’s instructions, while the first employment relationship continues.
• Licence (arts. 5, 10). A dispatching business needs a licence from the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare, valid for 3 years and renewable.
• Overseas dispatch (art. 23(4)). A licensed operator dispatching to a place of business outside the Act’s area must notify the Minister in advance (MHLW form guide, checked 2026-10-27).
• Penalty (art. 59(ii)). Unlicensed dispatch carries up to one year in prison or a fine of up to JPY 1,000,000.
• Duration (art. 40-2). A client may not receive dispatch from the same operator at the same place of work beyond the permitted duration. Vendor guides put the general limit at 3 years per organisational unit, with exceptions such as open-ended workers; we did not confirm the figure in the article text.
• Visa (from 2026-03-09). Dispatch-form applications need the pledge forms of the dispatching organisation and the client and the individual dispatch contract; a destination not yet fixed blocks approval. Fragomen (2026-02-27) reports that this covers EOR arrangements: the EOR and the client must each submit a pledge (Fragomen, checked 2026-10-27).

All articles via the Worker Dispatching Act translation, checked 2026-10-27; only the Japanese text has legal effect.

Risks the client carries:

• Deemed offer of employment (art. 40-6(1)). A client receiving dispatch in breach of the Act (an unlicensed operator, over the duration limit, or a contract for work used to avoid the Act) is deemed to have offered the worker a labour contract on the same conditions. The client is exempt if it was non-negligently unaware of the violation. Whether a foreign client with no Japanese presence is covered by the article is not settled in any source we found.
• Visa refusal. If submitted information is false or a pledging organisation fails its commitments, the application may be refused and later applications involving other foreign nationals of the same organisation may be affected (Fragomen, as above).
• Unfair-dismissal exposure. A dismissal without objectively reasonable grounds is void, so ending an employment is not a clean exit for a client that must instruct its provider to terminate (Labor Contract Act, checked 2026-10-27).

See also co-employment.

Who actually employs your hire in Japan

We read the Japan pages and documents of the 18 providers that operate in Japan and searched the national corporate-number registry of the National Tax Agency (houjin-bangou.nta.go.jp) by name. The registry shows a name, an address and the date a number was assigned, not shareholders or business activity, so a match links a company to a brand by name only. No vendor publishes a dispatch-licence number on its Japan page, and we did not search the ministry’s licence registry.

All checked 2026-10-27. “Own entity” rests on the vendor’s own statement or document, not on a registry record. Prices marked global are site-wide list prices, not Japanese ones. Papaya Global, RemotePass, Rise, Remozo and Justworks are not in the table: we could not confirm that they offer EOR in Japan.

Thirteen of the 18 don’t say who employs your hire, and for the four own-entity claims the registry confirms only a name match. That matters because in a grey area your exposure runs through the employer on the contract. Before signing, ask: “Which Japanese company signs my employee’s contract, does it hold a worker dispatching licence, and who signs the visa pledge?”

How to choose an EOR in Japan

Want the employer’s name and licence? No vendor names a licence number on its Japan page. Deel says its EOR is “a licensed local entity” and gives no detail. Ask any provider for the company name, the licence number and the registry record.

Need a work visa for a foreign hire? Dispatch-form applications need pledges from both the provider and you, and the pages we read don’t say whether an EOR entity can sponsor. Kleos says the Certificate of Eligibility is filed by the Japanese employer and the visa must be in hand before the start. Remote and Playroll say a right-to-work check adds up to 3 days. These are vendor claims; ask in writing who files.

Need to start fast? Vendors claim Multiplier under 48 hours, Oyster a 48-hour target, Playroll 1-5 days, Kleos about 5 working days, and Deel 5-10 business days in its FAQ (its page also says 1 business day and 1-5 days). Oyster’s own page adds that notice at a previous employer takes 1-3 months.

Price against completeness? On Japanese pages Kleos’s “from $200” is lower than Multiplier’s $459, Borderless AI’s $579, Skuad’s $599 list and Deel’s ¥86,490. Global list prices run from $99 (Native Teams) to $699 (Oyster); Rippling and Safeguard Global publish none. Compare price after you know who employs.

What it costs to employ someone in Japan through an EOR

The employer is the EOR itself. The examples are a Tokyo hire under 40 on 12 equal monthly payments with no bonuses, no dependants and no company health society: JPY 650,000 a month (JPY 7,800,000 a year, about USD 49,640) and JPY 1,300,000 a month (JPY 15,600,000, about USD 99,280), at 1 USD = 157.13 JPY (Bank of Japan, 2026-10-26, checked 2026-10-27). Premiums are charged on the grade amount of monthly standard remuneration in the Kyokai Kenpo Tokyo table, not on exact pay: grade 35 (JPY 650,000) and grade 49 (JPY 1,330,000) for health insurance, with pension and child-rearing contribution capped at JPY 650,000.

Why the higher salary costs a lower share. The pension and child-rearing contributions stop at a JPY 650,000 monthly base, and both examples are at or above it, so those amounts are identical. Health insurance runs to a JPY 1,390,000 base, and only employment and accident insurance have no cap. Doubling the pay adds about 41% to the employer cost, not 100%.

Pay history. On the same JPY 7.8 million salary, employer statutory cost moved from JPY 1,195,740 in 2021 to JPY 1,224,600 in 2026, about 2.4%, so the rates have been steady (Kyokai Kenpo and MHLW rate tables for each year, checked 2026-10-27).

Not included: nursing-care insurance for ages 40-64 (+0.81% of pay on the health base), bonuses, the disability-employment levy for employers with 100 or more staff short of the quota, any merit adjustment of the accident rate, commuting allowance, paid leave, severance and the EOR’s fee. The accident-insurance category for an EOR was not confirmed.

The EOR’s own fee comes on top, quoted per month. Five vendors show a price on a Japanese page: Deel ¥1,037,875 a year, about ¥86,490 a month, with setup ¥0; Multiplier from $459, billed annually; Borderless AI $579; Skuad $599 list, shown as $499 discounted on monthly billing and $449 on 12 months, the discount depending on hiring volume; and Kleos a flat fee from $200. Remote’s Japan page shows $599, a global price. Global list prices, where no Japanese figure exists, run from $99 (Native Teams) to $699 (Oyster). Rippling and Safeguard Global publish none; Atlas and Remote People quote a market range of $300-$600 and no price of their own.

Hidden costs, where published:

• Deel’s Japan page says “no hidden setup fees” and shows setup at ¥0 (deel.com, checked 2026-10-27).
• Kleos’s Japan page says there is no setup fee and no minimum term, and that a refundable deposit exists, quoted “line by line before you sign” (kleos.io, checked 2026-10-27).
• For every other provider, setup fee, deposit and termination fee are not published for Japan. Treat a blank as unpublished, not zero.

When you don’t need an EOR

• A genuinely independent contractor. If the person sets their own hours and tools and can serve other clients, a contract is closer to the real relationship. See how to pay contractors in Japan, our hiring guide and contractor misclassification. An individual usually works as a sole proprietor (kojin jigyo-nushi) filing the blue return, with a JPY 650,000 special deduction; they pay National Health Insurance and the National Pension on their own account (NTA, checked 2026-10-27).
• A visitor working remotely for you. The Designated Activities (digital nomad) status runs 6 months with no extension, needs annual income of JPY 10 million or more and excludes employment with an organisation in Japan, so it is no route to an EOR hire (ISA, checked 2026-10-27).
• Your own Japanese entity. The route to weigh for a permanent team and for a licensed arrangement you control. We found no published figures for setting one up, so we give none. See permanent establishment; we did not research the corporate-tax or payroll-registration duties of a foreign client that directs an employee in Japan.

What changed in 2026

• 2026-03-01: Kyokai Kenpo health-insurance rate in Tokyo cut from 9.91% to 9.85% from the March payroll; nursing-care rate 1.62% nationwide (Kyokai Kenpo, checked 2026-10-27).
• 2026-03-09: The Immigration Services Agency requires pledges from both the dispatching organisation and the client for Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services applications of dispatched workers; Fragomen reports that EOR arrangements are covered (ISA, checked 2026-10-27).
• 2026-04-01: Employment insurance for general business cut to 13.5/1,000 (worker 5, employer 8.5) from 14.5/1,000 in FY2025 (MHLW, checked 2026-10-27).
• 2026-04-01: A child and child-rearing support levy of 0.23% is added to health-insurance premiums, split between employer and employee, from the April payroll (paid in May). The employer-only child-rearing contribution stays 0.36% (Kyokai Kenpo, checked 2026-10-27).
• 2026-07-17: The amended Act on the Protection of Personal Information was promulgated (passed 2026-07-10); it takes effect on a date set by Cabinet Order within two years (PPC, checked 2026-10-27).
• 2026-10-01: Regional minimum wage revision: Tokyo JPY 1,280 (from 1,226) and Osaka JPY 1,231 (from 1,177); the national weighted average rises to JPY 1,177 from 1,121, with other prefectures following up to 2026-12-02 (MHLW, checked 2026-10-27).
• 2026-12-01: The income-tax reform takes effect for 2026 income: basic deduction JPY 1,040,000 for total income up to JPY 4.89 million, and a minimum employment-income deduction of JPY 740,000 (from JPY 650,000). It is applied at the year-end adjustment, not in monthly withholding (NTA, checked 2026-10-27).

How we built this page

Facts were collected and checked on 2026-10-27 against the Ministry of Justice translations of the Labor Standards Act, Labor Contract Act and Worker Dispatching Act, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the Immigration Services Agency, the National Tax Agency and Kyokai Kenpo; law-firm material was read as summaries, and the translations are tentative, with only the Japanese text having legal effect. Employers were checked against vendor pages and a name search of the National Tax Agency corporate-number registry, which links companies to brands by name only; we did not search the ministry’s dispatch-licence registry. Vendors are ordered with own-entity statements first, then the one that says own entity or partner, then those that do not disclose; no vendor pays for placement.