Hey there,

Most foreign professionals in Japan read their employment contract once, sign it, and file it away. That is the same thing their Japanese colleagues do, but for foreign professionals, some of those clauses carry implications that go well beyond the job itself.

This week: what your Japanese work contract actually contains, what is enforceable, what is not, and what to check before you sign the next one.

The connection between your employment contract and your immigration status is closer than most foreign professionals realize.

Trial periods and visa risk. Most employment contracts in Japan include a trial period (試用期間, shiyō kikan) of one to six months. During this period, employers have broader discretion to terminate employment than they do for permanent staff, though courts still require reasonable cause. For foreign professionals, a termination during the trial period creates a gap in your employment record that the Immigration Services Agency reviews at renewal. The termination itself is not disqualifying, but having a clean explanation prepared before it becomes necessary is worth doing.

The visa sponsorship question. Not all employment contracts specify what happens to your visa sponsorship if the employment relationship changes. Before signing, confirm whether the contract addresses the company's obligations around Certificate of Eligibility renewal and ISA Category 1 registration. At companies with established international hiring, this is handled as standard. At companies hiring a foreign professional for the first time, it may not be addressed at all.

Contract type and your renewal record. Whether you are classified as 正社員 (seishain, regular full-time), 契約社員 (keiyaku shain, fixed-term contract), or another designation affects how the ISA interprets your employment stability at renewal. Fixed-term contracts with clean renewal histories are generally accepted. A break in contract, even a short gap between one fixed-term period ending and a new one beginning, is worth flagging to an immigration professional before it becomes a renewal complication.

This free newsletter is for understanding how hiring and work in Japan actually function.

If you’ve started applying already, you’ve probably run into this:

Most jobs you find either require Japanese, are already filled, or you never hear back after applying. And it’s not always because you’re unqualified, a lot of those roles just aren’t meant for overseas candidates in the first place.

So I built something to make this easier.

It lets you search across company career pages directly and filter down to roles that actually fit your situation. You can focus on English-friendly positions, narrow by role or location, and set alerts so new jobs come to you instead of constantly checking.

It’s a much clearer way to see what’s actually available right now.

Check it out here.

Most of the things that cause problems in a Japanese employment contract were visible before signing. Here is what to look for.

Bonus clauses. Annual bonuses (賞与, shōyo) are not legally guaranteed in Japan. A contract may reference a bonus in general terms while leaving calculation method, timing, and conditions entirely to company discretion. If a recruiter quoted you a total compensation figure that includes a bonus, ask to see how the bonus is calculated and what range the company has documented. "Subject to company performance and individual assessment" with no further detail is not a commitment. It is a placeholder.

The 36 Agreement. Every Japanese employer that allows overtime is legally required to maintain a written overtime agreement (三六協定, sanjūroku kyōtei) specifying maximum overtime hours. This document caps how much additional work the company can legally require. You are entitled to ask what your company's 36 Agreement specifies. If the agreement references the maximum special provision of 100 hours per month in peak periods, that tells you what busy stretches look like in practice.

Notice periods. The statutory minimum notice period in Japan is 30 days, and most contracts specify exactly that. What contracts rarely make clear: resignation is effective regardless of whether the employer accepts it, and Japanese courts consistently uphold a two-week legal floor even when contracts specify longer. In practice, professional relationships and reference considerations lead most people to serve the contracted notice, but the legal minimum is useful to know when a notice period conversation becomes complicated.

Non-compete clauses. Non-compete agreements (競業避止義務, kyōgyō hishi gimu) are common in Japan, particularly in professional services and roles with significant client relationships. Japanese courts are generally reluctant to enforce broadly written non-competes. The factors courts weigh: scope of prohibited activities, geographic reach, duration (anything over two years is very difficult to enforce), and whether you received specific compensation for the restriction. A sweeping non-compete with no additional payment attached is legally weak, though navigating it with a former employer still involves real relationship costs.

🇯🇵 今日の面接フレーズ (Today's Interview Phrase)

賞与の計算方法について教えていただけますか？ Shōyo no keisan hōhō ni tsuite oshiete itadakemasu ka? "Could you tell me how the bonus is calculated?"

Ask this during the offer stage, framing it as confirming you understand the structure. You will get a clear answer, or a revealing non-answer.

Common mistake: Treating the employment contract as fixed before signing. Trial period length, bonus baseline documentation, and scope-of-work definitions have all been successfully negotiated by foreign professionals who asked directly at the offer stage. Once you sign, the leverage goes with it.

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Japan has some of the strongest employee protections in the developed world. Most foreign professionals arrive expecting the opposite.

Termination is genuinely difficult. Japanese courts apply the doctrine of abuse of dismissal rights, meaning an employer cannot terminate a regular full-time employee without valid cause even when the contract does not explicitly say so. Performance-based dismissals must be preceded by documented warnings, improvement periods, and demonstrated attempts at reassignment. This protection extends to foreign employees. If you are a 正社員 in Japan, you have significantly more job security than in most comparable markets.

The discretionary labor system. Some roles in research, planning, and certain product functions use a discretionary work arrangement (裁量労働制, sairyō rōdō sei) where working hours are treated as fixed regardless of actual hours worked, and overtime is not calculated on time. If your contract references this arrangement, your base salary should already account for it. It is legal and common, but important to understand before accepting a role where it applies.

Fixed-term to permanent conversion. Under the five-year rule (無期転換ルール), fixed-term employees who have been continuously employed for five or more years have the legal right to request conversion to an indefinite-term contract. This was introduced specifically to prevent companies from using repeated short-term contracts to avoid regular employment obligations. If you are approaching five years on a fixed-term arrangement, this right is active.

Clearer written terms are now required. Amendments to the Labor Standards Act that took effect in April 2024 require employers to provide more explicit written disclosure of key employment terms at hiring and at renewal. This includes: the scope of potential job transfers (転勤, tenkin), whether the role involves potential assignment to group companies, and specific terms around the five-year indefinite conversion right. If you are being hired or having a contract renewed, you are entitled to written clarity on all of these.

The overtime cap now covers all industries. The overtime reform that capped regular overtime at 45 hours per month and 360 hours per year has been in force since 2019 for large companies. A previous carve-out for construction and transport ended in April 2024, bringing those industries under the same cap. For foreign professionals considering roles in those sectors specifically, the legal protection now applies.

Company: Suntory Holdings Ltd.
HQ: Tokyo (Minato)
Category: Beverages / Consumer Goods / Global FMCG
English-Friendly: Yes, English is the working language in international and corporate functions
Hiring from Abroad: Yes, visa sponsorship available for qualified candidates

Suntory is one of Japan's most recognizable names globally, though not always in the way people expect. In Japan, they produce BOSS Coffee, Suntory Whisky, Orangina, and hold a significant share of the domestic beverage market. Internationally, they own Jim Beam, Maker's Mark, Laphroaig, and Courvoisier following their 2014 acquisition of Beam Inc. at the time, the largest overseas acquisition by a Japanese company. They operate across more than 40 countries with approximately 40,000 employees worldwide.

The reason to spotlight Suntory for foreign professionals is the breadth of function that a genuinely global FMCG operation demands. Supply chain across multiple continents, international brand management, regulatory compliance in alcohol markets from the US to the EU, multi-currency finance, sustainability reporting to global standards, and HR for a workforce spanning four continents. This is not international work in name, it is international work by necessity.

What stands out:

Current open areas include international business development, global supply chain, finance and accounting for international operations, digital marketing, corporate sustainability, and HR for international functions.

Application tip: Suntory interviews combine functional competence with cultural values alignment. Their guiding philosophy, "Yatte Minahare" (Give It a Go), shapes how they assess candidates. For international business roles, show familiarity with both the Japanese domestic beverage market and the global spirits competitive landscape. Interviews for international functions are conducted in English; domestic-facing roles may involve Japanese.

Careers page: suntory.com/careers

If your goal is to actually start applying, this is the approach I’d recommend.

Instead of relying on fixed job lists or jumping between job boards, you can search across company career pages directly and focus only on the roles that actually fit your situation. You can also set alerts, so new opportunities come to you instead of constantly checking.

You can start here

If you’re still figuring out your strategy or trying to understand how the market works, that’s what this newsletter is for.