---
title: "Reference checks in Japan: what you can actually learn"
description: In Japan, former employers usually confirm employment and little else. What the law rules out, why checks come before the offer, and what referees can tell you.
image: https://nobusato.jp/hubfs/covers-2026-11/background-checks-in-japan-cover-en-m.png
---

[Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en?hsLang=en)

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Organizations & Hiring

In this article

1. [The former employer](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/background-checks-in-japan#s1)
2. [What can't you ask in Japan?](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/background-checks-in-japan#s2)
3. [Finish before the offer](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/background-checks-in-japan#s3)
4. [What referees are good for](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/background-checks-in-japan#s4)
5. [Good references, weak execution](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/background-checks-in-japan#s5)
6. [Why I don't do backchannel checks](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/background-checks-in-japan#s6)

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2. [Articles](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog?hsLang=en)
3. [Organizations & Hiring](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/tag/organizations-hiring)

# Reference checks in Japan: what you can actually learn

A reference check confirms facts, not character

[Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)6 min read

Contents6

1. [The former employer](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/background-checks-in-japan#s1)
2. [What can't you ask in Japan?](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/background-checks-in-japan#s2)
3. [Finish before the offer](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/background-checks-in-japan#s3)
4. [What referees are good for](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/background-checks-in-japan#s4)
5. [Good references, weak execution](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/background-checks-in-japan#s5)
6. [Why I don't do backchannel checks](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/background-checks-in-japan#s6)

If your HQ is outside Japan, someone there will ask before the final offer: did we do reference checks?

They usually mean the version they know. Call the former employer's HR, ask about performance, salary and why the person left.

In Japan, most of that won't work. You'll learn less than you expect, and some questions can get you in trouble.

## The former employer

A former employer will usually confirm that the person worked there. That's about it.

We've made plenty of these calls. HR will confirm the person was employed. Ask anything beyond that, performance or the reason for leaving, and you get the same line: we can't share any more personal information.

They aren't being difficult. Under Japan's Act on the Protection of Personal Information, handing personal data to a third party generally needs the person's consent. If HR says too much and the candidate finds out, it's HR's problem. So the standard move is a polite no.

Salary works the same way. If you need to verify it, ask the candidate for their gensen choshuhyo, the year-end tax withholding statement. It's the normal way to do it here, and candidates rarely mind.

In Japan a reference check confirms facts, not character

Who you can ask, and what you get, within the Act on the Protection of Personal Information and Employment Security Act Article 5-5 with the MHLW guideline

Who you askWhat you getHow to use it

Former employer’s HR

→

Employment confirmed. Performance, reasons and salary get “we can’t share any more personal information”

→

Stop at employment

The candidate

→

Salary

→

Ask for their tax withholding statement

Referees the candidate picked

→

Whether interview events check out. Not whether the person is good

→

Bring the events you wrote down: how many people, who decided, which part was theirs

Backchannel

→

It leaks that they’re looking, and collects from third parties without consent

→

Don’t

A reference check won’t find something new. It checks the evidence from the interview.

Figure 1. In Japan a reference check gets you employment confirmed by the former employer, salary from the candidate’s tax statement and a check on interview events from referees, and a backchannel call is off the table because it leaks that the candidate is looking.

## What can't you ask in Japan?

Article 5-5 of Japan's Employment Security Act and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare guideline set clear limits. Collect only what the job requires. Don't collect race, ethnicity, social status, family origin, registered domicile, birthplace, beliefs or union membership. And collect from anyone other than the candidate only with the candidate's consent.

Questions some HQs treat as harmless, like family situation, marriage plans or whether someone plans to have children, are off the table. Japan's senior hiring market is small. A candidate mentions one bad call to a friend, and your company has a reputation.

## Finish before the offer

The timing matters more in Japan than in most places, because an offer here is very hard to take back.

In the 1979 Dai Nippon Printing case, Japan's Supreme Court treated a job offer (naitei) as a formed employment contract. It can be withdrawn only for facts the company didn't know and couldn't reasonably have known when it made the offer, and only if withdrawal is objectively reasonable and socially acceptable. Whether something a referee said meets that bar is hard to call.

So check first, offer second. Do it the other way round and you'll probably have to live with what you find. The cost of living with it is real: replacing a country head in Japan usually takes six to twelve months, as I worked out in [Two people at the top: when does it actually work?](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/when-two-heads-work?hsLang=en).

Finish reference checks before the offer, not after

The hiring sequence and the bar for withdrawing an offer (Supreme Court, Dai Nippon Printing, 1979)

1. 01InterviewWrite down events as evidence
2. 02Reference checkYou can still change course. Check the interview events with referees
3. 03Offer (naitei)An employment contract forms. Withdrawal needs facts you couldn’t have known, and a reason that is objectively reasonable and socially acceptable
4. 04Start dateFrom offer to start date, withdrawal stays hard

Check first, offer second. The other way round, you live with what you find.

Figure 2. Since the 1979 Dai Nippon Printing ruling an offer in Japan forms an employment contract and withdrawing it needs an objectively reasonable reason, so reference checks have to be finished before the offer.

## What referees are good for

Referees can tell you whether the facts line up. They can't really tell you whether the person is good.

Referees chosen by the candidate will speak well of them. “What is she like?” gets you very little.

I bring the events I wrote down in the interview. How big was the team on that project, who made the call, which part was hers, who pushed back. Referees rarely say anything negative, but you find out quickly whether the details match. It's the same idea as [what I look for in an interview](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/what-i-look-for-in-interviews?hsLang=en). The reference check is a second pass over the interview evidence. Don't expect it to find something new.

One question I ask every time: “If you had the chance, would you work with them again?”

Honestly, what comes back is usually tatemae, the polite public answer, not honne, what they really think. Few referees in Japan will tell a stranger on the phone that they wouldn't. So I ask, but I don't lean on the answer. The details of the events are what I trust.

## Good references, weak execution

I got this wrong once.

Every referee spoke well of the candidate. After he joined, it turned out he was badly short on execution. Things we decided didn't move.

I don't think the referees lied. Being well thought of and being able to push something through are different things, and I didn't ask about them separately. Now I ask referees to pick one piece of work that needed real pushing, and tell me how it got done, where it got stuck and who finished it.

## Why I don't do backchannel checks

Plenty of people trust the quiet coffee with someone who used to work with the candidate.

I don't. It's too risky.

The moment you ask, you've told someone the candidate is looking. You can't control where that goes, and nobody can predict what it does to their job or their life. Legally it's shaky too, since you're collecting personal information from a third party without consent.

Referees chosen by the candidate lean their way. If the company picks them instead, you need consent, and most senior candidates are still employed. Their current boss doesn't know they're looking.

For a sitting executive, the person who knows them best is the one you can't call. I don't have a good answer for that yet.

Has a reference check in Japan ever told you something you really needed to know?

Sources

- [職業安定法第5条の5・指針（厚生労働省）](https://jsite.mhlw.go.jp/niigata-hellowork/jigyounushi/kousei_saiyou/kojinjouhou/shishin.html)
- [大日本印刷採用内定取消事件 最高裁 1979年7月20日（厚生労働省）](https://www.check-roudou.mhlw.go.jp/hanrei/saiyo/torikeshi.html)

The legal points here are as of October 2026.

If a hire turns out wrong anyway, what you can and can't do during probation is in [Probation in Japan doesn't mean you can let someone go](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/probation-dismissal-in-japan?hsLang=en).

Author

[Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)

Launching in Japan, starting with people and systems. I write about building organizations, sales teams and technology organizations in Japan, in English, Japanese and Chinese.

[Profile](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)[Contact](https://nobusato.jp/en/contact?hsLang=en)

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