Writing a Japanese resume

Applying for a job in Japan means filling in a form, not designing a CV. The layout is standardised, the boxes are small, and most of what matters is knowing what belongs in each one. This guide explains every field in plain English, and the builder on this site turns your answers into the finished PDF for free.

Build your resume — free, no accountThe builder is in Japanese — keep the field-by-field table open next to it.

Japan uses two documents, not one

This surprises most people arriving from a CV-based hiring culture. A mid-career application in Japan normally needs both of these, sent together.

履歴書rirekisho

A short, standardised fact sheet: name, address, photo, schools, employers, qualifications, and two short written sections. Everyone uses the same form. Two A4 pages.

職務経歴書shokumu keirekisho

Free-form career history describing what you actually did and achieved in each role. This is the document closest to a Western CV. Usually one or two A4 pages.

New graduates are usually asked for the rirekisho only. For any other role, assume you need both unless the posting says otherwise.

Start here

How to write a rirekishoEvery field explained, with the Japanese label, its reading and what to put in it.How to write a shokumu keirekishoStructure, length, and which of the two standard layouts to choose.Free templates4 resume forms plus career history and covering letter, in Word, Excel and PDF. No account.Frequently asked questionsPhotos, handwriting, era years, visa status, file names, paper size.

What Sokureki does

Sokureki is a free Japanese service for making these documents in a browser. You answer the questions, it lays the answers out on the standard form, and you download a PDF. There is no account, no email address and no payment. It can also draft the two written sections for you and turn a selfie into the ID photo the form expects.

The interface is in Japanese. We have not translated the builder, because the document it produces is a Japanese-format resume that will be read by a Japanese employer, and a half-translated form causes more mistakes than it prevents. Instead, the field-by-field table gives the English meaning of every label you will see on screen. Open it in a second tab and the builder is straightforward to work through.

Open the builderThe builder is in Japanese — keep the field-by-field table open next to it.