How to write and read a job posting in Japan: required items, wording to avoid, free template

A job posting (kyujinhyo) is the document a company uses when it recruits, to show applicants the job and its working conditions, such as pay and hours. Under the Employment Security Act, you must show 9 items, including the duties and pay, by the first contact with the applicant (such as the interview) at the latest.

Article 5-3 of the Employment Security Act requires companies that recruit workers to state the job and its working conditions. The same applies when you list a job with Hello Work or a private placement agency: Hello Work and placement agencies may refuse a job listing that does not state them, or whose terms break the law (Article 5-6).

A job posting is not an employment contract. Hello Work says so too: "job information and job postings are not employment contracts" (Hello Work, How to read job information). Even so, courts hold that the working conditions in a posting become the terms of the contract unless there are special circumstances (see when the job differs from the posting). The safe approach is to write the posting as a draft of the contract you will sign later.

Where a posting appears depends on where you list it. Mid-career postings appear on Hello Work, job sites and company career pages. High school postings reach schools after Hello Work checks them. University postings appear at university career centers, on job sites for graduates and in Hello Work's listings for university graduates.

For the written terms at signing, see our employment contract templates.

When I review a client's job posting, I usually start with 2 things.

• First, I have a real, in-depth conversation with the client about which skills and experience are an absolute must and which are a trade-off. A job posting shouldn't be a wish list: it should not deter candidates, and it should be as wide as possible. The screening stage is when you filter; the posting's goal is to attract.
• Second, because we're trying to attract as many relevant candidates as possible, I focus on what's in it for them. I emphasize the benefits: career progression, the compensation package, holidays and so on. This is marketing, and any great marketing offer focuses on the benefits to its audience. A job posting shouldn't be about you; it should be about what you offer to potential candidates.

The trick to writing a job posting is to start from the conditions your work rules already set, and to write what makes the company attractive last, with facts. Follow these 7 steps and you won't miss a required item.

1. Set the conditions from your work rules and wage rules

   As a rule, the conditions in a posting become the contract, so never write conditions that differ from your internal rules. Copy the hours, days off and probation from your work rules, and the allowances from your wage rules.

2. Use a job title that does not point to one sex

   Write "sales representative", not "salesman", and "server", not "waitress". The guidelines of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act treat job titles for one sex, and phrases like "men welcome", as discrimination.

3. Split the duties into right after hiring and the scope of change

   Describe the product, who you deal with, a typical day and the tools used, in words someone outside the industry understands. The MHLW guidelines ask for details "as concrete and detailed as possible, including the work environment". Then write the work someone may move to through future transfers separately, as the scope of change.

4. Split requirements into required and preferred, and base them on the job, not age

   As a rule, you cannot set an upper age limit (next section). If you ask for years of experience, keep the number reasonable for the job. The rules for career-hiring postings show how to write experience as what someone can do.

5. Break down the pay

   Show base pay, allowances and fixed overtime pay separately. Low pay is the top reason people hesitate to apply (39.6%, Mynavi Job Change Trends Survey 2026, 1,446 regular employees who changed jobs in 2025), so applicants pay close attention to this line. If you give a range, the top can be an estimate, but courts have held that setting the final pay far below the estimate breaches good faith (Hasshu Sokuryo case, Tokyo High Court, December 19, 1983). Monthly pay (excluding fixed overtime, commuting and similar allowances) divided by the average scheduled hours a month must be at least the regional minimum wage where the job is (the 2026 national weighted average is ¥1,177). Pick the prefecture in the template above to see its rate; for hourly jobs, the part-time employment contract template checks it too.

   I always recommend a range, because realistically you should be able to match the salary to the candidate's skills and experience, while giving yourself some wiggle room in negotiations.

   The range shouldn't be too wide, though, so that the role doesn't look poorly scoped and the pay feels real. Unfortunately, many agents post inflated or outright bogus salaries on job ads to attract candidates, whom they can then introduce to many clients, so candidates in Japan have learned to distrust them. A good range spans 20% to 30% at most: for example, ¥5M to ¥6.5M a year.

   If possible, split base salary and bonus. Again, many job ads show an inflated "total compensation" based on an imaginary bonus for the best possible case. Stand out from this bad practice by being transparent and you will be rewarded: you'll save time on candidates you can't afford and spend it on people who fit your requirements. You'll also get honest feedback: if you can't attract talent at the salary you offer, you'll see no results and know right away that you need to change your offer.

6. State hours, days off, insurance and secondhand smoke measures

   State the start and end times, breaks, average monthly overtime, days off and days off a year, the 4 insurances (employment, workers' accident, health and pension), and the measures against secondhand smoke (such as no smoking indoors). If you write overtime as "yes", you need a 36 agreement signed and filed with the Labor Standards Inspection Office.

7. Write the company's appeal with facts, and add the posting date

   An attractive job posting states facts people can check, not adjectives. Write "a team of 5, with a 30-minute one-on-one every Monday" instead of "a friendly, family-like workplace", and applicants can picture the job. To sort out what makes your company attractive, split it into 4 areas: the work, how people work, the business's strengths and the people, and find one number or concrete example for each. Finally, add the posting date to show when the details were current. You must keep a posting accurate and up to date while it runs (Employment Security Act, Article 5-4), so update it when the conditions change.

   As mentioned, we are selling benefits. So the question I most often ask clients is: "Why would someone want this role?" We need to clearly articulate the opportunity and position it for the right type of candidate. Is it a chance for a junior to learn? A step up to management for a senior? A more flexible way to work, with flextime and working from home? You need a pitch, and it can't be generic.

Job posting examples: before and after

Write pay as in the fixed overtime sample above, with base pay, allowances and fixed overtime pay shown separately. With the job posting template above, you can make a PDF, or download the Word and Excel versions for free and adapt them to your own format.

Companies can't recruit high school students freely. A company first submits a job listing form to Hello Work, which checks it against labor laws. The company then applies to schools with the posting Hello Work has stamped. Schools do not recommend students for postings that skip this step (MEXT and MHLW notice).

The calendar for high school students graduating in March 2027 is below (MHLW, announced February 16, 2026). Selection for that year started on September 16, 2026. For students graduating in March 2028, check MHLW's next announcement.

The "one student, one company" rule, which lets each student apply to only one company for a set period, is decided by agreement in each prefecture (materials of the council on high school graduates' employment). In the 2026 agreements, Akita, Ibaraki, Saitama, Wakayama and Okinawa allow several applications from the start (with conditions, such as jobs in the prefecture only), and Osaka allows up to 2 from September 16. Check the agreement in the prefecture where the school is.

For university students and other new graduates, the government asks companies to follow a set calendar. For people graduating in March 2028, recruitment publicity can start on March 1, 2027, selection on June 1, 2027, and formal job offers on October 1, 2027 (Cabinet Secretariat request on new-graduate recruitment). Postings for new graduates should give "youth employment information", such as hires and leavers over the last 3 years, training, overtime and paid leave taken; if an applicant asks, you must give at least one item from each of 3 areas (Youth Employment Promotion Act, Articles 13 and 14). The new-graduate template includes this row.

As a rule, a company cannot make you work on conditions different from the posting. Courts hold that the working conditions in a posting become the terms of the employment contract unless there is a separate agreement or similar special circumstances (Chiyoda Kogyo case, Osaka High Court, March 8, 1990; the Kyoto District Court ruled the same way on March 30, 2017).

But where pay was shown as an estimate, a court held that the pay is not automatically fixed at that figure and may be set at an amount not far below it (Hasshu Sokuryo case, Tokyo High Court, December 19, 1983; MHLW, Check your working conditions).

If the company needs to change the conditions, it must show the changes to the applicant before signing the contract (Employment Security Act, Article 5-3(3)). The standard way is a document that sets the original and new conditions side by side, and the original conditions should not be changed lightly (MHLW, To companies recruiting workers). If you keep the job open on the new conditions, update the posting too.

Changing conditions after posting happens all the time with my clients. Like any advertising, it's a process of trial and error. The 2 triggers for changing conditions are a lack of results, or feedback from the candidates you've interviewed (often that the conditions are unclear or don't match).

Think of your job posting as marketing material you keep improving, and measure the results of each version. Over time, you'll identify the versions that convert better, and they'll tell you what candidates care about most and what attracts them to your company. That's extremely valuable, because you can then communicate the same points again during the hiring process.

For the worker, if the working conditions shown when signing the contract differ from the facts, they can end the contract at once. If they moved for the job and go home within 14 days of ending it, the company pays the travel costs (Labor Standards Act, Article 15). If the job came through Hello Work, they can report it to the Hello Work office that referred them. At the offer stage, the documents that confirm the conditions are the job offer letter and the written notice of employment conditions (see our employment contract templates).