The contract - the 雇用条件書 - is the document that decides your working life in Japan. Verbal promises from an agent are not enforceable. What is written is.
You are entitled to receive it in a language you understand. Ask, and do not accept “it is standard” as an answer.
Ten things to check
- The employer’s name and address. The company employing you, not the agency arranging it.
- The job content. Specific enough to recognise. “Manufacturing” is not a job description; “food processing line work, packing and cleaning” is.
- The workplace location. An actual address. Ask what happens if you are transferred.
- Contract period, and whether renewal is automatic, conditional or discretionary.
- Working hours, start and finish times, break times, and the shift pattern.
- Days off per week and per year, and how holidays are handled.
- Base pay, stated monthly or hourly, and whether it is at or above the local minimum wage.
- Overtime rates and how overtime is recorded.
- Deductions - tax, insurance, pension, accommodation, utilities. All of them, itemised.
- Accommodation: who provides it, the rent, what happens if you leave the job.
Salary and deductions explains what the deductions should look like, and housing and rent what is normal for accommodation.
Do the arithmetic yourself
Take the base pay, subtract every deduction listed, and write down the number that will actually arrive in your account. Compare it with what you were told verbally.
If those two numbers differ, the contract is correct and the conversation was not.
Then check the rent against what similar rooms cost in the same town. Accommodation deductions well above local market rates are a known problem.
Clauses that should stop you
- Holding your passport or residence card. Illegal. No legitimate employer does this.
- A penalty for leaving, or a “training cost” repayable on resignation.
- Deposits paid to the employer beyond ordinary, documented housing deposits.
- Deductions that are not itemised.
- A refusal to give you a copy of the signed contract.
Any one of these is a reason to stop. See agency red flags - several of these appear on both lists for a reason.
Fees
You should not be paying large recruitment fees. Some costs in your home country are legitimate and regulated; six months of wages is not.
Get every fee in writing, itemised, before you pay anything.
Support obligations
SSW employers must provide a support plan, directly or through a registered support organisation - orientation, help with housing and government procedures, a consultation channel in a language you understand. Ask who provides it and how to contact them.
Registered support organisations.
Keep a copy
A signed copy, photographed and stored somewhere you can reach from Japan. If a dispute arises - about hours, pay or deductions - it is the document that settles it.
And know that you can change employer within the same field under the rules, which is your ultimate protection: changing jobs on SSW.