Remofirst has just raised $25M in Series A funding! 🎉
Learn More
Japan is an island country in east Asia that is located within the Pacific Ocean. The country is part of the Ring of Fire and spans an archipelago of 6,852 islands, the 5 main islands being Honshu (the "mainland"), Hokkaido, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa.
Japan has the world’s 3rd-largest economy, and is built on powerful technology. The population is very welcoming, making Japan one of the most desirable places to do business.
The minimum wage in Japan is around JPY 961 per hour, and the standard workweek is 40 hours at 8 hours per day. Overtime is regulated by contracts and collective agreements, and paid between 125%-160% of the regular salary.
Pregnant employees are entitled to 14 weeks of paid maternity leave beginning 6 weeks before the due date and 8 weeks after the birth. This leave is paid at a rate equivalent to 2/3 of their regular salary and funded by the labor insurance office.
The father is also entitled to paid paternity leave for up to one year after the birth, and this leave is referred to as “childcare leave” in Japan. The father does not receive a salary while on this leave unless stated in the employment contract, but they are entitled to a partial allowance from social security.
Employees are not explicitly entitled to sick leave in Japan, but can use their paid vacation time as sick leave.
They are 16 public holidays in Japan, and employees are also entitled to paid leave based on how long they’ve worked at their company.
Employees can also receive leave for bereavement, hospitalization, menstruation, or civic duty.
Terminating employment contracts in Japan can be demanding, and employees are able to dispute terminations and only accept the termination with a severance package.
Employers need to provide 30 days of notice for terminations or provide payment in lieu of notice.
There are no requirements for employers to offer severance packages, but employees can dispute to receive a severance package equal to one month of pay for each year at the company.
While not mandatory, it’s customary to pay a 13th month and sometimes even 14th-month salary bonus to employees, each equal to 1 month of wages. One is usually a summer bonus paid in June and the more common one is a winter bonus paid in December. In 2024, Japan introduced a digital nomad visa.
★ 9.15% - Pension Contribution
★ 4.94% - Health Insurance Contribution
★ 0.6% - Unemployment Insurance
★ 0.36% - Family Allowance
★ 0.25% - Work Injury
You've sourced a full-time employee or contractor located in a country where your company is not incorporated.
Pass us the details of your candidate and we will let you know exactly what it costs to employ your candidate in that country.
Sit back and relax as we onboard your new team member and take care of all the local compliances and admin work.
It can be prohibitively expensive to establish an entity in every country you want to hire talent in, so Remofirst will hire and pay your employee on your behalf while you manage their daily duties. Remofirst will handle formal HR procedures and employment contracts that adhere to local laws, so that you can simply approve invoices via our platform. When you work with an Employer of Record (EOR) you can compliantly hire the best employees around the world.
Unlike full-time employees, contractors work on projects with multiple companies at a given time and are technically self-employed. Full-time employees are solely focused on their employer and usually receive benefits (such as health insurance, equity or stock options, and time off) as an additional form of compensation. While it can be cheaper to work with international contractors instead of paying benefits to a full-time employee, you run the risk of misclassification. It's recommended to work with an EOR for contractor onboarding and payments, so you can know that your international contractors are paid compliantly and on time.
