What a hire really costs in Japan
The offer is the start. Enter it with the prefecture and the recruitment fee to see the employer's social insurance line by line, the annual cost and the first-year total.
Employers in Japan pay roughly 15 to 16% of salary in social insurance that never appears on the offer letter, and a contingent recruitment fee adds a third of the first year. Budget with the real number.
Rates as of October 2026. The calculator is built and maintained by The Hardest Market, our Japan HR data site, where the assumptions and sources are listed.
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Retained, exclusive or contingent: a thirty-minute briefing is enough to say which fits, what the market looks like and what it will take.
How executive search works in Japan →