Japan Salary Guide 2026
Consensus salary index across 181 roles and every major function.
Free resources and tools built on official Japan recruitment data.
Consensus medians for 181 roles, with the typical agency fee and total cost beside each.
Translate a salary band into the real cost of an agency search in Japan.
Compare an external search against building an in-house recruiting function.
Licensed Japan agencies compared on placement volumes and published fee rates.
EOR and payroll providers with registry-checked facts. Free introductions, no commissions.
Define salary range, timeline, and target fee. Agencies with Japan market entry experience see your role instantly.
Receive standardized proposals from multiple agencies. Compare fees, timelines, sourcing approach, and track records side by side.
Accept the proposal that fits. Contact details are exchanged, and your exclusive agency partner starts sourcing immediately.
Agencies pay AirTA when you choose them. Companies pay nothing to post a role or accept a proposal.
Create detailed job postings with salary ranges, timelines, and target fees. Agencies see exactly what you need. No briefing calls. No back and forth emails. Just proposals from agencies who want the role.
Enter the essential details for this position
Every proposal follows the same format: fees, exclusivity timelines, candidate commitments, recruitment approach, relevant experience, and services. No marketing decks to decode.
Submitted by Elite Recruitment Partners
8 weeks
18%
Fee calculated on base salary
Country Manager
US SaaS company making its first Japan hire
Headhunting
11 weeks
Submitted by TechTalent Solutions
10 weeks
22%
Fee calculated on base salary
General Manager, Japan
European medical device maker opening its Tokyo office
Job change websites
13 weeks
Adjust fees or timelines with a single click, and the other side accepts, declines, or counters in-platform. No calls to schedule, no email threads to manage. You know where you stand in minutes, not days.
Submitted by Elite Recruitment Partners
10 weeks
Fee calculated on base salary
What a first hire really costs and how to choose the agency that finds them.
Consensus salary index across 181 roles and every major function.
What agencies charge, how fees are structured, and where they flex.
Five agency archetypes and the checks you can run on one video call.
The hiring assumptions that break on arrival and what replaces them.
Why the search opens before the entity, and which role to hire first.
What companies hiring here publish roles through, and why capital origin predicts it.
You don't need years of relationships in Tokyo. AirTA gives you the same access to Japan's recruitment market that established companies have, from day one.
Skip the months of introductions and referrals. Post a role and market-entry-focused agencies with verified track records see it the same day.
See exact fee percentages before you engage. Because every search is exclusive, agencies are selected on quality rather than by underbidding each other.
Every agency rating comes from real placements. See market-entry experience, industry specialization, and placement success rates before you commit a single yen.
Every rating on AirTA comes from a company after a completed placement. See how agencies perform on contract adherence, placement success, and partnership quality: the reference checks you'd normally need a local network to make.
Were the agreed proposal terms honored in the contract?
Was the role filled within the exclusivity timeline?
Would you work with this agency again?
Based on 12 verified reviews
The questions foreign companies ask before their first Japan hire.
You can run the search before your entity is live. Many entrants search in parallel with incorporation and sign the offer once the entity or an employer of record is ready. Agencies on AirTA work with both setups.
Contingency fees typically run 30% to 40% of first-year base salary. Exclusive engagements usually close lower, at 20% to 30%, because the agency gets certainty rather than a one-in-four chance. Every proposal on AirTA states its fee up front.
Yes, for hiring through proposals: posting roles, comparing proposals, and accepting a partner cost nothing, and none of it needs payment details. Agencies pay AirTA when you choose them.
Agencies send structured proposals covering fee, timeline, and sourcing approach. You accept exactly one, and that agency becomes your exclusive partner for the search. Every other proposal is released.
Yes. You can hide your company name until you accept a proposal, so stealth entrants can run a full search without signaling their market entry.
It depends on seniority and language requirements, so AirTA makes agencies commit to a timeline in every proposal. You compare committed timelines instead of estimates.
Tell us the seat, the timing and the salary band you have approved. The search reaches agencies that specialize in first hires for foreign companies, and you can keep your company name hidden until you accept a proposal.