Resume template for Japan: the career history beside your rirekisho

Leslie prints a summary, then the jobs, then skills and education, close to the career history Hello Work Shinagawa lays out: a summary of knowledge and experience, the work history, then education and qualifications. Its one touch of blue in a centred header keeps the page formal, and it has no photo box, since the photo belongs on the rirekisho.

Second choice: Henrietta. Henrietta keeps the same summary-then-jobs order under a black and grey left-aligned header and lifts education up beside the work history.

Leslie template details and test results

Leslie prints its sections in a fixed order, the same in the PDF and the Word file. Here is that order for this sample, and what to put in each section.

1. Professional Summary. Hello Work Shinagawa's example opens with the job type you are applying for and a short summary of knowledge and experience, which it calls an important point when you have had several jobs. Two or three sentences: years, field, the scale of what you ran and what you want next.
2. Work Experience. Open each employer with one line on what the company does and how big it is, the overview Shinagawa's preparation steps ask you to gather, then results with numbers: team size, schedule, share or time saved. The sample lists the newest job first, the order the guide recommends for foreign-affiliated firms.
3. Skills. Methods, systems and tools, then languages with a test score. Shinagawa notes that employers read the career history partly as a test of computer skills, which is why it should be typed rather than handwritten.
4. Education. Shinagawa says your final education is enough, with the graduation date. The sample gives one degree with April-to-March dates, the Japanese academic year, which also explains why the first job starts in April.
5. Certifications. JASSO asks for licences and qualifications under their official names, including ones earned in your home country, and Shinagawa adds qualifications you are studying for. Leslie prints this list last, so mention a qualification the posting requires in the summary as well.

The same content as the files above, so you can copy a line or compare it with your own.

Terms this kind of resume is usually searched for. Use the posting's exact wording, and only for work you have done.

• project management
• requirements definition
• warehouse management system
• system rollout
• offshore development
• cut-over planning
• basic design
• detailed design
• test specifications
• change control
• vendor management
• PMP
• TOEIC

• Sending an English resume alone when the posting asks for a rirekisho and a shokumu keirekisho. Hello Work treats them as separate documents, and the career history adds detail to the form rather than replacing it.
• A third page. Hello Work Shinagawa says it makes the reader question how well you can summarise.
• Shortened or informal names for qualifications, where JASSO asks for the formal titles.
• A list of duties at each employer with no figure attached; Shinagawa's keyword sheet pushes numbers such as team size, share, sales and time saved.

We exported this sample with Resumity's PDF exporter in Chrome on 2026-10-29 and read the file back with three open-source text extractors. This shows whether software that turns a PDF into text can recover it; it is not a test of any commercial applicant tracking system. How we test templates.

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We opened every page below on that date. Pay, rules and requirements change, so check the source before you rely on a detail.

1. Hello Work Internet Service (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare): Rirekisho and shokumu keirekisho: how to write them (career_doc01) (Employers generally ask for a rirekisho, and increasingly also a shokumu keirekisho; the ministry created its own sample rirekisho form for fair recruitment after the Japanese Standards Association removed the JIS sample in July 2020; the form is offered as PDF and Excel in A3 and A4.)
2. Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (via Hello Work): MHLW sample rirekisho form (A4) (Fields: date, name with furigana, gender (marked optional, may be left blank), date of birth and age, address and contact, education and work history, licences and qualifications, motivation, special skills and appeal points, personal requests; a photo box for cases where a photo must be attached.)
3. Hello Work Shinagawa (Tokyo Labour Bureau, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare): How to write a shokumu keirekisho (career history) (Two A4 pages is the limit, three or more raises doubts about your ability to summarise; type it on a computer, as computer skills are judged; chronological or career-based styles; gather each company's overview (business, capital or sales, employees); express results with numbers; layout: desired job, summary of knowledge and experience, work history (Japanese companies oldest first, foreign-affiliated and some large firms newest first), final education with graduation year, qualifications including planned ones, other details, closing confirmation with date, handwritten signature and seal.)
4. Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO): Job Hunting Guide for International Students 2027 (Selection starts with an entry sheet and resume; handwritten resumes used to be required but online submission is increasingly common; polite desu-masu style; photo in a suit taken at a studio, name written on the back; official names of licences and qualifications, including those from your home country; no correction fluid or erasable pens on handwritten forms.)