Food industry recruitment agency and job media, 20+ years, Tokyo

Asking price	¥6,000,000 + broker fee (minimum brokerage fee ¥5,000,000 + tax, paid in installments)
Annual revenue	¥25,000,000 to ¥50,000,000
Operating profit	¥5,000,000 to ¥10,000,000
Price vs profit	About 0.6 to 1.2 times operating profit (profit shown as a band). Within the usual 2 to 5 times for small Japanese businesses.
Location	Tokyo (23 wards)
Industry	Staffing, recruitment and outsourcing (specialised in food and restaurant industry paid job placement)
Employees	5 or fewer
Transfer type	unknown (譲渡対象会社 (financial table header) and 補足情報 mentions "株式譲渡や役員変更を伴う場合は" (if share transfer involved), while 譲渡資産 lists specific business assets such as goodwill, know-how, website, and licences typical of an asset sale; the listing does not clearly state which structure applies.)

What is for sale

This is a paid job placement (recruitment agency) business based in Tokyo, specialising exclusively in the restaurant and food service industry, using its own job media platform to source candidates for roles such as store managers, head chefs and head office staff. It has been operating for over 20 years and has more than 10,000 registered members, earning success fee commissions when candidates are hired. The reason for sale is not stated, though the seller has indicated a wish to remain involved after the sale.

Because the transfer structure is not clearly stated, a buyer should confirm with the seller whether they are buying the company itself (with its licence, bank account and contracts intact) or just the business assets (requiring re-registration of the paid recruitment licence and new contracts in the buyer's name).

What is included

Paid job placement business licence
Job seeker database and registered member records
In-house job media website and app
SNS and marketing channels including LINE
Corporate bank trading account
Business know-how and operating processes

Strengths (as the seller states them)

Specialised for over 20 years in food and restaurant industry recruitment, understanding on-site roles like store managers and head chefs
Own job media, registered candidate database and marketing channels can all be handed over together
Low fixed costs due to small team, leaving room to improve profitability
Track record of repeat and confidential job requests from major restaurant chain clients

Wrinkles a careful buyer would ask about

Paid job placement licence and a qualified placement officer must be maintained or re-applied for by the buyer
Business is highly dependent on a small number of key staff
Seller wishes to stay on as manager after the sale, so post-sale role needs to be agreed
Detailed financials such as cash balance, net assets and debt are hidden until membership registration, so full financial health is unclear
Seller notes past revenue fluctuations and financial issues in prior years, so revenue continuity, refund risk and advertising ROI should be checked carefully
Transfer of external service accounts may be restricted by third-party platform rules and needs confirmation during negotiation

Paying for it

If you stay overseas. No Japanese bank will lend to a new company whose director lives abroad. The realistic stack is your own cash plus asking the owner to take part of the price over 2 to 3 years. That one question is in every Deal Pack.

If you move to Japan. On a visa that lets you run a business, Japan Finance Corporation lends up to ¥72M at about 1 to 2 percent for exactly this. Once you have a Japanese company, the government pays two-thirds of due diligence and registered-broker costs, up to about ¥8M (round 16 closes 6 Nov 2026).

Full rundown, with the catches: japandealflow.com/money

Summary of a public listing as at 2026-09-17. Seller-reported figures, not verified. Listings sell fast, the original may already be gone. Nothing here is financial or visa advice. Free weekly email: Japan Deal Flow.