Japan Payroll & HR Services
Accurate, Compliant Payroll
in Japan - Delivered Bilingually
From your first employee to complex payrolls with hundreds of employees, Kreston ProWorks provides payroll, HR administration, social and labor insurance, compliance, treasury and reporting for international businesses in Japan.
Correct and On Time Is the Starting Point
Every payroll provider should calculate payroll correctly and ensure employees are paid on time. We consider that Payroll 101.
For international companies in Japan, the greater challenge is making the entire process work between a Japanese regulatory environment and an overseas HR, finance or payroll team.
Kreston ProWorks combines Japanese payroll and labor expertise with fully bilingual English/Japanese communication, structured workflows, cloud technology, flexible reporting and access to HR, tax, accounting, treasury and immigration specialists when the issue extends beyond payroll.
Does This Sound Familiar?
Your headquarters does not understand Japanese payroll
Your regional or global HR and finance teams need information in English, while payroll regulations, documentation and many local systems remain Japanese.
Too many providers are involved
Payroll, social insurance, labor matters, tax, immigration and payments are handled separately - creating handoffs, unclear responsibilities and additional management work.
Your global systems do not fit Japan
Employee information may originate in Workday or another global HRIS, attendance data may come from a Japanese system, and headquarters needs payroll results in its own reporting format.
You are growing beyond a basic payroll
What worked for five employees becomes difficult at 50, 100 or several hundred, as onboarding, offboarding, bonuses, benefits and annual procedures increase.
You need more visibility and control
Payroll should not disappear into a black box until somebody sends a spreadsheet for approval. You need clear deadlines, inputs, status, variance information, review and approval.
You need someone who can explain it
When an employee, finance manager or global HR team asks why something changed, you need a provider who can explain the answer accurately in Japanese or English.
Japan Payroll From First Hire to Established Operations
- 1employee
- 20employees
- 100+employees
- Complexand project workforces
Kreston ProWorks supports international businesses across the complete Japan employment lifecycle.
Stage 1
Establishing your first Japan team
For your first people in Japan, we help establish the employment environment itself.
- Employment agreements
- Rules of Employment and HR policies
- Compensation and benefit arrangements
- Visa and immigration support
- Company enrollment in social and labor insurance
- Employee registrations
- My Number administration
- Payroll implementation
- Banking and payment arrangements
- Onboarding procedures
Where your Japanese entity is not yet ready, employees can start under our Managed Consultant Services / Employer of Record solution and move to your own company later.
Stage 2
Growing Japan operations
As you grow, the service becomes a managed recurring payroll and HR process.
- Monthly payroll calculations, bonuses, allowances and deductions
- Withholding tax and resident tax
- Social insurance and labor insurance
- Attendance coordination and employee changes
- Payslips and management reporting
- Accounting data
- Salary payments and authority payments
- Onboarding, offboarding and ongoing employee administration
Every year
Annual and recurring Japan compliance
Japan payroll extends well beyond twelve salary calculations. We coordinate the recurring and annual requirements.
- Year-end tax adjustment
- Resident-tax updates
- Annual withholding information
- Labor insurance reconciliation
- Social-insurance standard remuneration reporting
- Employee insurance changes
- Annual My Number procedures and other required filings
One Payroll Partner. Wider HR and Labor Support.
Payroll problems frequently begin outside payroll. An employment agreement changes. An employee receives a new allowance. Someone relocates to Japan. A bonus structure is introduced. An expatriate has an immigration issue. Working hours change. An employee leaves.
Each can affect payroll, insurance, tax or labor compliance - so our payroll team works within a wider bilingual professional-services environment, not as an isolated calculation center.
| Need | Kreston ProWorks support |
|---|---|
| Payroll | Monthly and additional payroll calculations |
| HR administration | Joiners, leavers, employee changes and records |
| Labor & social insurance | Enrollments, changes, annual procedures |
| Employment framework | Agreements, Rules of Employment, policies and benefits |
| Immigration | Visa and mobility coordination |
| Tax | Withholding, year-end and specialist tax support |
| Treasury | Salary and authority-payment support |
| Accounting | Payroll journals and finance reporting |
| HR advisory | Labor issues, policies and employee matters |
| EOR / MCS | Employment before, or instead of, establishing an entity |
Payroll Technology That Works in Japan - and With Your Global Team
A Japanese payroll engine, a cloud workflow and international visibility.
Kyuyo Bugyo
Our core Japanese payroll calculation environment, selected for its stability, robustness and ability to handle Japan-specific payroll requirements.
Office Station Pro
Cloud-based HR and statutory administration supporting employee procedures and Japan compliance, with English-translated screen support built into our international delivery environment.
BREEZE
The workflow and communication environment between you and Kreston ProWorks: payroll schedules and tasks, client inputs, secure document exchange, reporting, status visibility, reconciliations, review, approvals and payroll history.
We Work With Your Systems - Not Just Ours
International payroll should not require headquarters to redesign its processes around a Japanese provider.
Wherever practical, we map information from your existing HRIS, attendance and finance environment into our payroll process and return the results in the format your organization needs.
- Employee master-data files
- Attendance and working-time information
- Variable compensation
- Payroll results
- Employer-cost reporting
- Payroll journals
- General-ledger upload files
- Variance reports
- Custom management reports
- Group reporting templates
For larger engagements in particular, we can manipulate, map and return payroll data using client-provided formats wherever technically feasible - reducing manual re-keying and helping Japan fit into your regional or global process.
Moving toward system-to-system. Kreston ProWorks is rolling out a more fully cloud-based, system-to-system payroll operating model, designed to further automate the movement of data between client systems, our workflow environment and Japan payroll processing.
A Visible and Controlled Monthly Payroll Process
Client input
Employee changes, attendance, variable compensation and other agreed payroll information are submitted to the payroll calendar.
Kreston ProWorks processing
Data is checked and processed through the Japan payroll environment. Exceptions and Japan-specific issues are investigated.
Review and reconciliation
Payroll results, changes, variances and agreed reports are made available for review.
Client approval
Your authorized contact reviews and approves the payroll before finalization.
Payment and reporting
Payslips, salary-payment information, authority payments and accounting and reporting files are delivered to the agreed scope.
Compliance and employee administration
Employee changes and recurring statutory procedures feed back into the next payroll cycle.
Changing Payroll Provider?
We manage the transition before we run the payroll. Moving payroll providers creates risk if historical balances, employee data, tax information or system configurations are incomplete.
- Current-process review
- Employee master data
- Prior payroll / YTD validation
- Policies and pay elements
- System configuration
- Reporting setup
- Parallel payroll
- Reconciliation
- Approval
- First live payroll
For larger or more complex payrolls, we run agreed parallel payrolls and reconcile the differences before cutover.
Experience From One Employee to Complex Workforces
1-20
employees
Small Japan teams
We regularly support international businesses establishing small Japan operations, combining payroll with company setup, HR infrastructure, immigration, accounting and tax support.
~20
employees
Growing international operations
For an internationally backed renewable-energy group: payroll, detailed reporting, salary payments, onboarding and offboarding, social and labor insurance, My Number administration, year-end adjustments and annual labor procedures.
6
employees
Employer transition
Six employees started under MCS/EOR while the client’s Japanese subsidiary was established, then moved into direct employment without interruption to employment or payroll.
1,000+
employees over the engagement
Large and dynamic workforces
For an international staffing provider at the Osaka Expo: around 200 active employees at peak, more than 60 visa cases and frequent onboarding and offboarding across five pavilion operations.
Why International Companies Choose Kreston ProWorks
Employees supported across engagements; workforce size and scope vary.
Fully bilingual
Payroll communication, implementation and issue resolution in English and Japanese, for local employees and overseas management.
Japan expertise, international perspective
We understand what Japanese payroll has to do locally, and what global HR and finance functions need to receive.
Payroll + HR + labor + tax + finance
One coordinated team, rather than separate providers passing issues between one another.
Flexible with data
Outputs and reports adapted to your group’s requirements, rather than one fixed reporting format for every client.
Responsive, and able to scale
Small enough to be responsive, experienced enough to scale - from first hires and small subsidiaries to large, fast-changing workforces.
Part of Kreston Global
Local Japanese delivery, with access to an international network of independent accounting and advisory firms.
Information Security and Payroll Controls
Payroll contains some of the most sensitive information a company holds. Our operating model is built around controlled access, secure document exchange, defined review and approval steps, payroll audit trails and separation of responsibilities.
BREEZE supports role-based access, secure transfers, audit records and SSO/MFA within the platform.
Kreston ProWorks is progressing its information-security assurance program toward ISO/IEC 27001 certification and SOC 2 assurance, with an internal dry run planned from Q4 2026 and formal implementation targeted for Q2 2027.
Pricing That Scales With Your Japan Workforce
Our standard payroll commercial model is based on a monthly base fee plus a per-employee / payslip fee. Additional services are clearly identified to your requirements:
- Implementation
- Onboarding and offboarding
- Year-end adjustment
- Additional payroll runs
- My Number administration
- Annual compliance
- Treasury and payment services
- Specialist HR and labor support
- Bespoke reporting or integrations
Frequently Asked Questions About Japan Payroll
Can you provide payroll completely in English?
Yes. Kreston ProWorks is fully bilingual. We communicate with overseas HR and finance teams in English while handling the Japanese payroll, labor and regulatory environment locally. Japanese communication is also available directly with employees and local stakeholders.
Can you handle payroll for only one or a few employees?
Yes. We support companies from their first Japan employee through larger established operations.
Can you support payrolls with hundreds of employees?
Yes. Our experience includes complex and rapidly changing employee populations reaching hundreds of active employees, supported by structured workflows, systems and reporting.
Can you take over payroll from another provider?
Yes. We can review existing payroll data and processes, configure the new environment and, where appropriate, perform parallel payroll and reconciliation before the first live run.
Do you handle social and labor insurance?
Yes. Employee onboarding, offboarding and changes can be coordinated with the applicable social and labor insurance procedures. Japanese law makes social-insurance administration an important part of employing people locally, including employer enrollment responsibilities for covered employees.
Do you handle year-end adjustment?
Yes. Year-end adjustment can be included as an annual payroll service, together with the related year-end data collection and reporting.
Can you handle salary payments?
Yes. Salary and authority-payment support can be incorporated into the treasury scope, subject to agreed banking, authorization and control arrangements.
Can you work with our HR system?
Yes. We agree the data exchange and reporting requirements during implementation. Depending on your systems and technical environment, employee, attendance and payroll information can be mapped between systems or exchanged using structured files.
Can you provide payroll reports in our own format?
Where practical, yes - this matters particularly to larger international organizations. We agree reporting, journal and data formats during implementation so the Japan outputs fit into group HR, finance and consolidation processes.
Do you support expatriates and employees moving into Japan?
Yes. Immigration, residence-related administration, My Number, banking and employee enrollment requirements can be coordinated with payroll readiness where required.
What if we do not have a Japanese company yet?
Our Managed Consultant Services / Employer of Record solution can employ eligible personnel while your own Japan operation is being established. We can then coordinate the transition onto your entity.
Do you also provide HR and labor advice?
Yes. Employment agreements, Rules of Employment, HR policies, benefits, labor matters and specialist HR support can be provided alongside payroll.
Memberships and Credibility
Make Japan Payroll Work for Your Employees - and Your Global Team
Whether you are hiring your first employee, changing payroll providers or managing a complex Japan workforce, we can build a payroll and HR operating model around your business.
Correct. On time. Compliant. Bilingual. Visible to your headquarters.