--- title: Why a Good Recruiter Sometimes Tells You Not to Move description: Recruiters in Japan are paid on the hire, yet good ones sometimes say stay. Refunds, public six-month leaver counts and a two-year rule explain why it pays. image: https://nobusato.jp/hubfs/covers-2026-10/why-good-recruiters-say-stay-cover-en-2026-10.png --- [Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en?hsLang=en) [Profile](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en) [Method](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/method?hsLang=en) [Articles](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog?hsLang=en) [Glossary](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/glossary?hsLang=en) [Contact](https://nobusato.jp/en/contact?hsLang=en) [日本語](https://nobusato.jp/ja/blog/why-good-recruiters-say-stay)[English](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/why-good-recruiters-say-stay)[中文](https://nobusato.jp/zh/blog/why-good-recruiters-say-stay) Organizations & Hiring In this article 1. [Isn't telling a candidate to stay just lost money?](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/why-good-recruiters-say-stay#s1) 2. [What stays on the recruiter's books after the start date?](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/why-good-recruiters-say-stay#s2) 3. [What the rules don't cover](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/why-good-recruiters-say-stay#s3) 4. [How should an employer read it?](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/why-good-recruiters-say-stay#s4) 5. [Sometimes "stay" just means "I have nothing for you"](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/why-good-recruiters-say-stay#s5) 1. [Home](https://nobusato.jp/en?hsLang=en) 2. [Articles](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog?hsLang=en) 3. [Organizations & Hiring](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/tag/organizations-hiring) # Why a Good Recruiter Sometimes Tells You Not to Move Advice against interest carries weight [Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)7 min read Contents5 1. [Isn't telling a candidate to stay just lost money?](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/why-good-recruiters-say-stay#s1) 2. [What stays on the recruiter's books after the start date?](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/why-good-recruiters-say-stay#s2) 3. [What the rules don't cover](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/why-good-recruiters-say-stay#s3) 4. [How should an employer read it?](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/why-good-recruiters-say-stay#s4) 5. [Sometimes "stay" just means "I have nothing for you"](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/why-good-recruiters-say-stay#s5) An agent paid on commission wants the same thing you want. That is the usual assumption, and economists tested it on real estate. When agents in the United States sold their own homes, they got 3.7% more and kept the house on the market 9.5 days longer than when they sold a client's. The agent's best move is a fast close. A recruiter in Japan is paid the same way, on the hire. So when one tells a candidate to stay where they are, something other than this month's fee is doing the talking. ## Isn't telling a candidate to stay just lost money? On that one deal, yes. Most recruiting in Japan is contingency work. The hiring company pays only when the person joins, and the rate usually quoted is [30 to 35% of annual salary](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-recruiter-fee-a-third-of-salary?hsLang=en). If the candidate doesn't move, the hours already spent earn nothing. The real estate numbers come from Steven Levitt and Chad Syverson, published in the Review of Economics and Statistics in 2008. Their explanation is simple. Waiting ten more days for a better offer on someone else's house adds very little to the agent's commission, so the agent would sooner close and move to the next listing. On their own house they keep the whole gain, and they wait. That is a study of another industry, and I wouldn't carry the numbers over. The structure does carry over. Whoever is paid on the close prefers speed. The person they act for may not. A recruiter who says "don't move yet" is speaking against their own interest in that deal. Statements made against interest are the ones worth listening to. ## What stays on the recruiter's books after the start date? More than most clients realize. The fee can be partly refunded, early leavers are counted in public, and for two years the agency may not encourage that person to move again. The refund first. If the hire leaves soon after joining, the agency returns part of the fee. Japanese law doesn't require a refund scheme. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's guidelines call one "desirable," and whether an agency has one, and on what terms, must be disclosed. Then the count. Under the Employment Security Act, agencies report figures to a ministry-run site, the Jinzai Service Sogo Site. It shows how many people each agency placed and, starting with people who joined in fiscal 2018, how many of the permanent hires (people employed with no fixed term) left within six months, dismissals excluded. A placement that doesn't hold becomes a number anyone can look up. Then the two years. The guidelines say an agency must not encourage a person it placed in a permanent job to change jobs for two years from the start date. They also bar "congratulation money" and similar payments beyond what is socially reasonable as a way of soliciting job seekers. Licenses granted or renewed on or after January 1, 2025 carry both rules as license conditions. Placing someone, then placing the same person elsewhere a year later for a second fee, is closed off in writing. After the hire, the recruiter's account stays open for two more years What still attaches to the agency after a permanent placement in Japan. Based on the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's guidelines under the Employment Security Act and its notices, as of November 2026 1. Start dateThe fee comes inContingency: the hiring company pays once the person joins 2. Soon afterPart goes back if they leaveRefund scheme. Not mandatory; the guidelines call it "desirable." Existence and terms must be disclosed, and the period varies by agency 3. 6 monthsLeavers are counted in publicPermanent hires who left within six months, listed per agency on the ministry's Jinzai Service Sogo Site 4. 2 yearsNo encouraging another moveApplies to permanent hires the agency itself placed. A condition on licenses granted or renewed from January 1, 2025 Place someone who won't last, and every later entry is a loss. Figure 1. After a placement in Japan the agency still faces a refund if the hire leaves early, public disclosure of permanent hires who left within six months, and a two-year ban on encouraging that person to change jobs (a condition on licenses granted or renewed from January 1, 2025). Put those together and the arithmetic changes. An agency that pushes in someone it expects to leave may have to return the fee, adds one to its six-month count, and can't encourage that person to move for two years. An agency that says stay loses one deal. ## What the rules don't cover The rules stop at two years. Beyond that, I think two other things do the work. These are observations from the employer's side. I have no statistics for them. Candidates become hiring managers. The engineer who was told to stay may be running a department of twenty in five years, with roles of their own to fill. People tend to remember who told them the truth when it cost something. And the market is small. Only [about one job changer in ten](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-hiring-channels?hsLang=en) in Japan goes through a recruiter. Someone who has covered one occupation for years keeps meeting the same candidates and the same employers. Settling accounts one deal at a time doesn't survive long in a room that size. Some recruiters do work one deal at a time. Where people are measured on placements per month and turnover among consultants is high, nobody is waiting five years. How large each group is, I can't tell you. ## How should an employer read it? A candidate sent by a recruiter who sometimes tells people to stay deserves a closer look. Someone who wanted that candidate to move has already asked them, from the other side, why they are moving and why now. Two complaints employers often raise are that [every agency sends the same people](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/recruiters-send-the-same-candidates?hsLang=en) and that candidates change their minds at the last step. I think they share a root. Before the introduction, nobody checked whether the person really wanted to move. A recruiter willing to say "stay" has done that check for the employer. This is my judgment, and I can't put a number on it. It shows in a few places an employer can see. One is the recommendation. Does it say why this person is moving now, or only why they match the spec? The second alone suggests a database search. Both together suggest a conversation. Another is the answer to a plain question: did you ever advise this person to stay, and what did they say? An answer with a specific event in it suggests the conversation took place. A third is whether the recruiter says no to the employer. Do they say so when the offer won't travel in this market? Do they object when the candidate the employer likes is wrong for the role? People who can say unwelcome things to candidates can usually say them to clients. The public figures are the last. The ministry site lists placements and six-month leavers for each agency. For small agencies the numbers swing a lot, so they can't settle the question alone. They are one input in deciding [what to give agencies and what to keep in-house](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/in-house-recruiting-vs-agencies?hsLang=en). ## Sometimes "stay" just means "I have nothing for you" The signal can be misread. A recruiter may say "don't move yet" because they have [no role that fits](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/why-recruiters-dont-reply?hsLang=en), and it sounds kinder that way. From outside, the two sound identical. Facts separate them. A recruiter who really advised against a move can give the reason, and can say what the candidate hadn't yet used up in the current job. One who simply had no opening can't. The rule shouldn't be over-read either. The two-year ban restricts the agency from encouraging a move. The person is free to move on their own. And none of this guarantees that the candidate fits. That call belongs to the employer. So the useful question for an employer is a small one. When did your recruiter last talk someone out of a move? This article is general information, not legal advice. For license conditions, fees and refund rules for employment placement businesses, refer to the Employment Security Act, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's guidelines and your prefectural labour bureau. For a specific contract, consult a lawyer or a labour and social security attorney (sharoshi). Sources (as of November 2026) - [Levitt & Syverson, "Market Distortions When Agents Are Better Informed," Review of Economics and Statistics 90(4), 2008 (NBER Working Paper 11053)](https://www.nber.org/papers/w11053) - [Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and prefectural labour bureaus, notice on adding the bans on job-change solicitation and congratulation money to license conditions (from January 1, 2025, in Japanese)](https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001327688.pdf) - [Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and prefectural labour bureaus, notice to employment placement businesses on the revised guidelines (from April 1, 2021, in Japanese)](https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/000747063.pdf) - [Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and prefectural labour bureaus, notice on information to be posted on the Jinzai Service Sogo Site (in Japanese)](https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/11600000/001603370.pdf) --- 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) ## More in this column 1. 01[How to Score Modesty in Japanese Candidates](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/scoring-modesty-in-japanese-candidates?hsLang=en)7 min Western samples inflate self-assessments by 0.87 standard deviations; East Asian samples by zero. Scored literally, ... 2. 02[Real Failure or Safe Failure? Reading the Interview Answer](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/real-failure-or-safe-failure?hsLang=en)8 min Over 90% of student job candidates fake to some degree in interviews. To tell a real failure from a safe one, ask what ... 3. 03[Why Being Overqualified Gets Candidates Vetoed](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/overqualified-as-a-veto?hsLang=en)8 min Hiring managers read highly capable candidates as less committed. Of three fears (leaving, boredom, team disruption), ... [Column guide: Organizations & Hiring](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/guide-organizations-and-hiring?hsLang=en) · [Glossary](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/glossary?hsLang=en) · [The method behind the articles](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/method?hsLang=en) [← All articles](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog?hsLang=en) ## Writing about launching in Japan, in three languages. [Profile](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en) [Get in touch](https://nobusato.jp/en/contact?hsLang=en) Nobu Sato Writing about launching in Japan, in three languages. 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