At Mase Consulting, we’ve built a strong reputation for delivering high-impact technical sales and engineering talent across the UK and Europe. Now, we’re proud to announce that we’re expanding our specialist recruitment services into Japan.
If you’re entering the Japanese market for the first time or scaling up your existing team, we’re here to make the process simpler, faster and far more effective with our specialist retingency service – all the benefits of a retained search, with none of the upfront costs.
Whether you’re hiring in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya or across Japan’s regional hubs, our data-led, insight-driven approach is designed to help international businesses recruit with confidence in a new and complex market.
Retained Recruitment Without the Risk
Traditional retained recruitment models can feel risky, especially when expanding into unfamiliar territory. Large upfront retainers, long lead times and minimal guarantees often leave hiring managers frustrated before a single candidate appears.
Our Retingency model turns that approach on its head.
You’ll receive all the strategic advantages of a retained search, from detailed market mapping to proactive headhunting and a dedicated account manager – but you only pay when we successfully place the right candidate.
There are no upfront costs, no wasted time, and no compromise on quality. It’s retained recruitment, redefined to work in your favour.
Why We’ve Expanded into Japan
After delivering outstanding results for our clients across Europe, we’re now helping them expand into Japan. Over the past year, several of our international clients have asked for support hiring in Japan as they grow their footprint in the region. As more businesses move into the Japanese market or scale existing teams, the demand for high-quality technical sales and engineering talent is increasing – but so are the challenges.
From cultural differences to language barriers and unfamiliar hiring expectations, many businesses struggle to find candidates who align with both their technical needs and their company culture.
What are the recruitment challenges in Japan?
As more of our clients expand their operations into Japan, we’ve taken the time to understand the market, and why so many international businesses struggle to recruit technical sales and engineering professionals in the region.
Recruitment fees in Japan are noticeably higher than in Europe, reflecting the complexity of the market and the additional time and resources needed to find and engage key individuals.
Japan’s culture of lifelong employment with changing jobs often seen as a sign of disloyalty, many professionals are reluctant to move companies, even when better opportunities are available to them. This significantly reduces the size of the active talent pool, especially for niche technical sales and engineering roles.
Privacy concerns also play a role. Candidates are often cautious about sharing personal or professional details online, preferring to keep their employment history private and avoid appearing boastful. As a result, traditional online sourcing methods are less effective.
All of this means that recruitment in Japan takes more time, more strategic effort, and a much more personalised, headhunting-led approach.
What Makes Our Approach Different?
Here’s how we help businesses navigate the biggest hiring challenges in Japan:
1. Eliminating Upfront Costs
Considering the recruitment challenges in the region, hiring in Japan typically involves high financial risk, especially when working with retained recruiters who ask for payment before any value is delivered. With our Retingency model, you’ll only pay when we successfully place the right candidate. This means you get access to high-quality search and strategy without the pressure of upfront investment.
Benefit: You can scale with confidence, knowing your budget is protected until results are delivered.
2. Delivering Deeper Candidate Insight
It’s not just about finding someone who looks good on paper. It’s about understanding how they’ll perform in your business – how they think, how they communicate, and how they lead.
That’s why we include behavioural assessments for all recruitment assignments within this region. These assessments provide you with a deeper understanding of each candidate’s mindset, working style and leadership approach, helping you make smarter, more informed hiring decisions.
Benefit: Reduce the risk of bad hires by understanding who a candidate really is, not just what their CV says.
3. Ensuring Continuity and Consistency
Cross-border recruitment often feels disjointed. Different time zones, inconsistent communication, and lack of cultural understanding can stall even the best hiring plans.
With Mase Consulting, you’ll work with a dedicated account manager who understands your sector, your goals, and your timeline. Behind them is a team of recruitment experts who have already delivered successful hires in markets across the world.
Benefit: A single point of contact and a consistent experience across every stage of the recruitment process, no matter where you’re hiring.
Start Your Japan Hiring Journey Today
If you’re planning to hire technical sales or engineering talent in Japan, or are already struggling to find the right people, we would love to chat with you.
We won’t give you the hard sell. Just straightforward advice, a clear roadmap, and a recruitment model designed to reduce risk and deliver results.
Give our team a call on + 44 (0)161 870 5000, or book a quick 45 minute initial call at a time that suits you with one of our recruitment experts here.
