Why this seat is different in Japan
An HR Director in Japan does things an HR Director elsewhere delegates to lawyers. The person files the work rules (就業規則) with the Labour Standards Inspection Office, signs or manages the annual overtime agreement (36協定), runs the relationship with the labour inspector (労働基準監督署), the social insurance office and the external labour consultant (社労士), and decides how far a global performance process can go before it collides with Japanese dismissal law. If they get this wrong, the company finds out during an inspection or a lawsuit.
Headcount thresholds change the job. At 10 employees the work rules must be filed. At 50 an occupational physician, a health committee and annual stress checks are required. At 101 the company must publish a women's advancement action plan, and disclosure of the gender pay gap and female-manager ratio extends to this size from April 2026. At 301 the obligations widen again, including disclosure of male childcare-leave take-up. The disability employment quota is 2.5 percent now and rises to 2.7 percent in July 2026. Check the current list with your labour consultant before publishing; the point is that the JD should say which thresholds this person will manage.
The talent problem is specific. HQ wants a strategic business partner. The Japan entity needs someone who knows the Labour Standards Act. People who are both exist, but most came up through a short list of foreign-capital employers and are known to every search firm in Tokyo. Japanese HR careers more often run through labour administration (労務) and HR systems (人事制度) than through business partnering, so "commercial mindset" is the usual gap, not labour knowledge.
Purpose of the role
Lead the people agenda for Japan: partner the Managing Director and leadership team, run a compliant and well-managed HR function, and translate global people programmes into something that works in Japanese law and Japanese workplaces.
Key responsibilities
Leadership partnership
- Sit on the Japan leadership team and advise the Managing Director on organisation, talent and culture.
- Be the escalation point for the hardest people decisions: restructuring, senior exits, harassment investigations, union or employee-representative matters.
Talent and organisation
- Run workforce planning, succession and leadership development for the Japan business.
- Lead organisational change, including restructuring, integrations and site changes, inside Japanese legal constraints.
Reward and labour compliance
- Own the work rules, overtime agreements, statutory filings and the relationship with the labour consultant and inspectors.
- Implement global grading and pay structures against a seniority-based (年功) legacy where one exists.
- Keep the company compliant with equal-pay rules (同一労働同一賃金), the retirement-age and rehire system (定年・再雇用), childcare and care-leave law, harassment-prevention duties, disclosure obligations and the disability quota.
HR operations
- Oversee payroll (usually outsourced), social insurance, onboarding and HR systems. Decide what moves to shared services and what stays local.
Regional and global interface
- Represent Japan to regional HR and the centres of expertise, in English, and push back where a global programme will not work locally.
Candidate profile
Must have
- Ten or more years of HR experience in Japan with at least three leading the function or a large business-partnering team.
- Working knowledge of the Labour Standards Act, Labour Contract Act and the practical handling of exits, inspections and employee relations.
- Experience in a foreign-capital company reporting to a regional or global HR leader.
- Evidence of partnering a business leader on organisation and talent, not only administering HR.
Preferred
- A restructuring, integration or site closure handled end to end.
- Implementation of a global HR system, grading or performance framework in Japan.
- Experience with a works council, union or employee representative.
Language
- Japanese at native level: work rules, inspections, employee relations and most of the workforce run in Japanese.
- English at business level: regional reporting, policy work and leadership-team membership run in English.
Decide before you post
- Solid line to region or to the Japan MD, and what the other line controls.
- Team size and whether the role is hands-on. In a subsidiary under 300 people, the "HR Director" usually does the work as well as leading it. Say so.
- Which thresholds and obligations apply to your headcount.
- What global programme is coming next (new HRIS, grading, performance model), because that is the first year's job.
- Hybrid working and office days: HR leaders will be asked to enforce a policy they must also live with.
How hard is this hire
Hard, and getting harder. In a recent search for an HR Director in a large services company we approached more than 80 HR leaders to produce a shortlist of five. Expect three to five months. Counter-offers are common because incumbent employers know the replacement cost. Searches fail when the brief asks for a strategic partner and the Managing Director actually needs someone to fix payroll and work rules first; decide which you are hiring and say it.
Interview questions that separate candidates
- Tell me about an exit you handled under Japanese law. How did you structure the voluntary resignation (退職勧奨) conversation, and what was the settlement?
- Describe a labour inspection or an employee claim you managed personally.
- How did you implement a global performance or grading framework against a seniority-based legacy? What did you change and what did you refuse to change?
- Which of the statutory thresholds did your last company cross while you were there, and what did you put in place?
- How do you work with your 社労士, and what do you keep in-house?
