How to Build a Team for Entering the Japanese Market: Recruiting Strategies for Rapid Business Deployment

1. Overview of Japan's Recruitment Landscape: Costs of Hiring, Employment, and Attrition

1. Recruitment Costs (1.2M–1.5M JPY per hire):
   • Headhunting Fees: Typically 30–40% of the annual salary.
   • Paid Job Boards: Costs range from 200,000 to 1M JPY per listing.
   • Recruiter Salaries: In-house recruiter expenses add to the overall budget.
2. Employment Costs:
   • Total employment cost is approximately 140% of the employee’s salary (includes taxes, insurance, office space, equipment, etc.).
3. Attrition Costs: Key timelines and impacts:
   • Critical Milestones: 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after hiring.
   • Time and Opportunity Costs: Losses caused by delays in work and missed opportunities.
   • Termination Mediation Costs: Legal fees and compensation during dismissal processes.

2. Common Pitfalls in Recruitment

1. Overqualified Candidates:
   • They often feel undervalued and spread dissatisfaction internally, making long-term collaboration challenging.
2. Professional but Uncommitted Employees:
   • Deliver subpar work, exhibit a lack of engagement, and fail to contribute meaningfully to growth.
3. Mentally Dependent Individuals:
   • Struggle to grow independently in the workplace and may cause significant disruptions (“loud quitting”).
4. Ambitious but Disloyal Employees:
   • Potentially compromise business integrity by leaking critical information or resources.

3. Defining and Pricing Core Talent

1. Core Talent in Operations (8M JPY+):
   • Strategic Thinking: Collaborates with the CEO to define company-wide challenges.
   • Prioritization: Identifies and prioritizes key issues effectively.
   • Commitment: Shows strong determination to resolve problems.
2. Core Talent in Technology (12M JPY+):
   • Communication: Clearly defines problem boundaries, goals, and proactively addresses obstacles.
   • Commitment: Understands the business impact of technical issues and resolves them internally.

4. Profiles of Key Hires (Minimum Viable Talent)

1. Growth Stage Talent:
   • Characteristics: Quick executors, coachable, proficient in Japanese for email communication.
   • Roles and Salary Benchmarks:
     • Operations: Reliable students or fresh graduates, starting at 4M JPY.
     • Technology: Full-stack developers capable of building SaaS solutions (traffic + payment gateways), starting at 6M JPY.
     • B2B Sales (if required): 8M JPY+.
2. Shake-Out Stage Talent:
   • Characteristics: Logical thinkers with ideas, strong networks, and native-level Japanese proficiency.
   • Additional Roles and Salary Benchmarks:
     • Add an experienced Data Engineer: 10M JPY+.
     • Expand and improve the team with seasoned B2B Sales professionals (if required).