How to Write a Japanese Resume: The Rirekisho Explained

What a rirekisho is and how it differs from a CV

A rirekisho, written 履歴書, is a personal history on a standard form. Templates are sold in stationery shops, downloaded from the web, and sometimes issued by the company itself, and while they differ in small ways, the blocks are largely the same: identity and contact details, a photo, education and work history in date order, licences and qualifications, a motivation field, and a few practical boxes such as commuting time and dependants.

Three habits separate it from a Western CV. It is a fixed template, so you do not rearrange sections or add a skills sidebar. It runs from oldest to newest, so your most recent job sits at the bottom of the history, not at the top. And it is modest in tone: history rows record facts in set phrases with no adjectives, and self-promotion is confined to the motivation and self-PR fields. Achievements, numbers and project detail belong in the companion document described at the end.

The fields at a glance

The table below lists the fields found on most templates, with the Japanese label and the format or set phrase that commonly fills each. Your form may omit some boxes or add others, such as a residence-status line on templates aimed at non-Japanese applicants. Fill every box that is printed; where you have nothing to write, use the set phrase for none in particular rather than leaving it empty.

The top block: name, date, photo, address

Write your name exactly as it appears on your residence card or passport, in the same order. Non-Japanese names are commonly written in katakana, sometimes with the Roman-letter version beside them, and the furigana row above repeats the reading. Look at the printed label: ふりがな in hiragana asks for hiragana, フリガナ in katakana asks for katakana. The date at the top is the date you submit, not the date you started writing, and your age is calculated as of that date with 満 in front.

The photo box takes a recent, formal, front-facing head-and-shoulders photo against a plain background, in the clothes you would wear to the interview. Sizes and rules are printed on the template and vary, so follow the form rather than a guide. If you paste a printed photo, people commonly write their name on the back in case it comes loose. Below that, the address takes the postal code mark first, then the full address with furigana above the kanji, and a phone number and email you actually check.

Education and work history in the set format

The history block has three columns: year, month, and the event. Write the heading 学歴 centred on its own line, then one row per event, from the oldest to the newest. Most templates start from the last year of secondary school or from high school entry; ask if the listing specifies. Each school takes two rows, entry with nyūgaku and graduation with sotsugyō, and the second row may shorten the school name to dōkō, the same school, or dōdaigaku, the same university.

Leave one blank row, write 職歴 centred, and list employment the same way: nyūsha when you joined a company and taisha when you left, with a short reason. If you are still employed, the final row reads genzai ni itaru, to the present. Whether or not you have work history, the block ends with 以上 on the right, which closes the list. Write company and school names in full, including kabushiki-gaisha rather than the bracketed abbreviation, and use the official name at the time you attended.

A few variant phrases cover the other cases. Contract work that ended on schedule is keiyaku kikan manryō ni yori taisha, left on expiry of the contract, which reads better than a personal-reasons line. A redundancy is kaisha tsugō ni yori taisha. Leaving a course before finishing is chūto taigaku, and a student who has not yet graduated writes sotsugyō mikomi. Some people write taishoku instead of taisha; both are seen, but do not mix them within one form.

Dates: era or Western, but never both

Japanese forms commonly use the era calendar, in which the year is counted from the start of the current emperor's reign, and many templates print 年 with a space for either system. Western years are equally accepted on most forms and are easier for non-Japanese applicants to keep straight. The rule that matters is consistency: the date at the top, your birth date, every history row and every qualification row must use the same system, because a mixed form looks careless.

If you choose the era system, convert carefully. Reiwa began in May 2019, so Reiwa years are the Western year minus 2018; Heisei began in January 1989, so Heisei years are the Western year minus 1988; Shōwa began in late 1926, so Shōwa years are the Western year minus 1925. Only the first year of an era carries two names, and for a date in that year you write whichever era was in force on the actual day.

On a handwritten form, numbers may be written in Arabic numerals or in kanji numerals, and both are common; typed forms nearly always use Arabic numerals. Whichever you use, the first year of an era is written gannen rather than ichi-nen, so 2019 after May would be Reiwa gannen. When in doubt, use Western years throughout and move on; the interviewer cares whether the dates are right, not which calendar you chose.

Licences and qualifications

This block follows the same year and month layout. Write the official name of the qualification in full, then shutoku for a licence you obtained or gōkaku for an exam you passed. Language qualifications go here, and for a non-Japanese applicant the JLPT level is often the line a hiring manager looks for first. List them oldest to newest, driving licences commonly first. If you have nothing yet, write toku ni nashi; if you are studying for something, one line saying so is common and welcome.

The motivation field

Shibō no dōki is the one place on the form where you argue for yourself, and it is small, commonly three to five sentences. A pattern that works: one sentence on what drew you to this company in particular, one on the experience or skill you bring, and one on what you want to do there. In writing the company is kisha; onsha is the spoken form used in the interview, and mixing them is one of the most common slips on forms from non-Japanese applicants.

Keep the register humble and the verbs in the formal polite range: shibō itashimashita, kōken shitai to kangaete orimasu. Avoid copying a template paragraph that could fit any company; hiring staff read hundreds and recognise them. If your Japanese is a selling point, say it in one plain sentence with the level attached rather than with adjectives. The self-PR and hobbies boxes, where present, take two or three short sentences in the same tone.

Commuting time, dependants and the requests field

The small boxes near the bottom are practical, and they are easy to get wrong through overthinking. Commuting time is the one-way time from your current address to the workplace, written as yaku plus minutes; if you would move for the job, write that in the requests field instead. Dependants means the people you support financially, excluding your spouse, who has a separate ari or nashi box. Templates commonly also ask whether you have a duty to support your spouse, again as ari or nashi.

The requests field, honnin kibō kinyūran, is not the place for salary hopes or preferences. Most applicants write kisha no kitei ni shitagaimasu, I will follow your company's rules, and add a line only for a genuine constraint: a fixed work location, a start date tied to a notice period, or a specific role when the listing offers several. Templates for non-Japanese applicants sometimes add a residence-status line; if yours does, copy the status and expiry exactly from your residence card and confirm anything unclear with the employer.

Mistakes non-Japanese applicants commonly make

• Reordering the history newest first, as a Western CV would; the rirekisho runs oldest to newest.
• Mixing era years and Western years, or writing an era's first year as ichi-nen instead of gannen.
• Writing onsha in the motivation field; the written form is kisha.
• Abbreviating school and company names, such as writing 高校 for 高等学校 or the bracketed form of kabushiki-gaisha.
• Leaving boxes blank instead of writing toku ni nashi, or missing the furigana rows above the name and address.
• Putting achievements, percentages and project bullet points into the history rows; those belong in the shokumu keirekisho.
• Using correction fluid or crossing out on a handwritten form; people commonly rewrite the page instead.
• Writing a name that differs in order or spelling from the residence card, which slows down every later check.
• Pasting a casual or cropped photo; the box expects a formal photo taken for the purpose.

Saying your rirekisho aloud

The shokumu keirekisho is the rirekisho's companion for mid-career applicants: a free-format career history, commonly one to two typed pages, that describes each role, your responsibilities, and concrete results, in the achievement-focused style the rirekisho deliberately avoids. Whether the listing asks for one is stated in the job posting, and the two documents should agree on every date and company name. The guide to Japanese job interview questions covers what happens once both are on the table.

Every row on your form is a question waiting to be asked, and interviewers commonly work down the history with the paper in front of them. So practise the form as speech: each row as a full sentence with a verb, each gap with a one-sentence reason, and the motivation field as a spoken paragraph rather than a recitation. The lines below are what that sounds like, with the questions you should expect in return.