EOR from Japan to India.
Hire Indian talent from Japan without setting up an Indian entity. Save up to 70% on setup & employment cost.
Hire in India from Japan. Without an Indian entity.
TMS becomes the legal employer of your Indian hires while you operate from Japan. We invoice you in JPY (¥); salaries paid to your team in INR. All statutory contributions handled. Manufacturing tech + automotive R&D.
What you get with TMS
We're the legal employer
TMS signs the employment contract under Indian labour law; you direct day-to-day work. Your IP / NDA / non-compete flows into the contract.
Invoiced in JPY (¥)
Pay TMS in JPY (¥) from your home-country bank account. Salaries disbursed to employees in INR. No FX exposure on your books.
5-7 day onboarding
From signed master agreement to first onboarded employee in under a week, regardless of time-zone or location.
Japan-friendly process
MSA + DPA reviewed against your home jurisdiction. Compatible with most home-country compliance standards.
Save up to 70% vs entity
Skip the Rs 12L+ subsidiary cost, 90+ days of registration, and statutory auditor overhead. Same compliant Indian team — fraction of the cost.
Statutory bullet-proof
PF, ESIC, PT, LWF, gratuity, bonus, TDS — all filed correctly state-by-state. 20 years zero penalties.
Office, IT & visa support
Coworking, managed office, laptop & equipment rental, employee mediclaim, visa / mobility for your home-country team visiting India. Bundled or a-la-carte.
Clean exits & entity transition
Decide later to set up your own Indian entity? We'll help you migrate every employee onto your payroll with zero salary disruption.
How it works
Discovery
Japan time-zone friendly. ~30 minutes.
Proposal & MSA
Pricing in JPY (¥), statutory breakdown, sample contract.
Offer & onboarding
Candidate signed on TMS employment contract aligned to your spec.
Day 1 live
Indian employee starts. Payroll, benefits, statutory pre-configured.
What’s included in your monthly EOR fee
Contracts & HR letters
- ✓State-compliant employment contract
- ✓Offer, appointment, increment / transfer letters
- ✓NDAs, IP assignment, non-compete (jurisdiction-permitting)
- ✓Customized HR policies
Payroll
- ✓Monthly INR disbursal to employees
- ✓Invoicing to you in JPY (¥)
- ✓Form 16 / annual returns
- ✓Reimbursements + perk taxation
Statutory compliance
- ✓PF, ESIC, PT, LWF, gratuity, bonus, TDS
- ✓State-wise registrations & filings
- ✓Monthly compliance MIS
- ✓Audit-ready registers
Benefits & insurance
- ✓Group mediclaim
- ✓Personal accident & term life
- ✓Leave & state-specific holiday policies
Office, IT, visa (optional)
- ✓Coworking / managed office
- ✓Laptop & equipment rental
- ✓Visa & mobility for visiting Japan staff
- ✓On-ground administrative help
Japan → India EOR Playbook 2026
Country-specific PDF: tax treaty optimisation, payroll mechanics in JPY (¥), common compliance pitfalls, time-zone playbook.
- ✓Japan-to-India tax treaty notes
- ✓Payroll mechanics: JPY (¥) → INR
- ✓Compliance pitfalls + how to avoid
- ✓Sample EOR contract clauses
Frequently Asked Questions
Do we need an Indian entity to hire from Japan?
No. TMS becomes the legal employer in India. You hire from Japan without registering an Indian subsidiary.
Currency of invoicing?
JPY (¥). Salaries to your team are paid in INR — TMS absorbs the conversion.
How long to onboard?
5-7 business days from signed master service agreement. Most Japan clients run their first Indian hire on TMS within 10 days of first call.
Can we transition to our own Indian entity later?
Yes — and we help you do it. Many Japan companies start with EOR and transition to a wholly-owned subsidiary at 30+ headcount. We migrate employees cleanly.
Talk to our EOR team.
Tell us your role, headcount, and timeline. You'll get a proposal in JPY (¥) and a free 30-minute consultation with our managing partner.
Tell us what you need.
our EOR Sales Expert will respond inside a business day.
Tell us your role, headcount, and timeline. You'll get a proposal in JPY (¥) and a free 30-minute consultation with our managing partner.
A Japanese company can hire full-time employees in India without setting up a legal entity by using an Employer of Record (EOR) like TMS. TMS becomes the legal employer in India, handles payroll, statutory compliance, and benefits, while your team manages day-to-day work — typically live within 48 hours.
Why Japanese companies hire from India through an EOR
- Acute domestic labour shortage. Japan’s working-age population has been shrinking since the mid-1990s. IT and engineering roles are the hardest to fill, with the Ministry of Economy projecting a shortfall of hundreds of thousands of digital workers by 2030. India is the highest-scale, highest-quality alternative.
- Established Japan-India tech corridor. Rakuten, NEC, Hitachi, Fujitsu, and SoftBank have run India engineering centres for years — the playbook for Japanese companies extending into India is well-trodden. [REVIEW: this is generally true but flag if specific TMS positioning desired]
- Cost arbitrage at engineering scale. A senior engineer in Bangalore or Pune typically costs 30-45% of an equivalent Tokyo, Osaka, or Yokohama hire.
- Time-zone proximity. India is 3.5 hours behind Japan. A 9am Tokyo start is 5:30am in Bangalore — early-IST shifts give natural daily overlap with Japanese morning hours.
- Avoiding the 4-6 month India entity setup with its ₹15-35 lakh first-year cost.
How EOR Japan to India works
- TMS is the legal employer of record in India. Employee signs Indian employment contract with TMS. TMS issues offer letter, pays salary in INR, deducts statutory taxes, files all returns.
- You retain operational control. Day-to-day work, performance, projects, goals stay with your Japan team.
- No Indian permanent establishment for your KK or Godo Kaisha. Because TMS is the employer, your Japanese entity does not create taxable presence in India.
- Your payment to TMS is a deductible service expense in Japan, invoiced in JPY or INR by agreement.
Roles Japanese companies typically place on TMS payroll
Japanese clients typically focus on roles where English is the working language and Japanese-language requirement is light or none:
- Software engineers (backend, full-stack, frontend, mobile) — the dominant category.
- DevOps, SRE, platform engineering — strong India talent pool, time-zone advantage for 24/7 reliability.
- QA and SDET — automation-heavy roles.
- Data engineers, ML/AI engineers — strong growth corridor.
- Embedded software and IoT engineering — for hardware/automotive/electronics clients.
- Back-office finance, accounting, and FP&A — English-process work.
- Customer support for English-speaking customer bases (not Japan-domestic support).
Note on Japanese-language requirement. For roles requiring Japanese language fluency (customer support for Japan-domestic customers, in-depth coordination with non-English-speaking Japanese staff), India is not typically the right talent pool — TMS would recommend you keep those roles in Japan or consider Philippines / Vietnam for nearshore Japanese-language capacity.
The TMS 5-step onboarding process
- MSA and scope agreement — commercial terms, IP assignment, confidentiality, exit provisions.
- Candidate sign-on — Indian employment offer letter, KYC, PAN, Aadhaar, bank details.
- Statutory enrollment — EPF, ESI (if applicable), professional tax, gratuity nomination.
- Payroll setup and first salary credit — CTC structured per Indian conventions.
- Monthly compliance and reporting — EPF, ESI, PT, TDS, quarterly statutory returns.
We deploy talent in 48 hours.
EOR vs setting up your own India entity
For 1-25 hires, EOR is overwhelmingly the right path.
First-year cost of an Indian entity: ₹3-12 lakh registrations and legal + ₹15-35 lakh operational setup (~¥3.5M-¥7.5M JPY) [REVIEW: at ~¥1.8/₹, double-check current rate] + 4-6 months timeline + 80-150 hours/month ongoing compliance burden.
EOR through TMS replaces all of that with a single per-employee fee, 48-hour deployment, zero PE risk, one-line accounting.
When EOR fits: 1-25 employees, market-test phase, multi-country expansion. When to transition: 30+ India headcount, Indian directorial presence on roadmap, strategic IP held by Indian subsidiary. TMS supports the EOR-to-entity transition as a standard service.
FAQ
Do I need an Indian entity to hire engineers in India?
No. Through an EOR like TMS, you can hire full-time Indian employees without registering an Indian company.
How fast can a new hire be live on TMS payroll?
For candidates you have already identified, TMS deploys talent in 48 hours.
Who is the legal employer — TMS or my Japanese KK?
TMS. The Indian employee signs an Indian employment contract with TMS. This eliminates Indian permanent-establishment risk for your Japanese entity.
Can I convert my EOR hires to my own Indian entity later?
Yes. TMS supports EOR-to-entity transition as a standard service.
Can my India team work Japanese business hours?
Yes. India is 3.5 hours behind Japan, which gives natural early-IST overlap with Japan morning hours (a 6am Bangalore start = 9:30am Tokyo). Many engineering teams work 6:30am-3:30pm IST for full Japan-hours coverage.
We use specific Japanese tools/processes (kanban boards in Japanese, internal docs in Japanese). Will Indian engineers adapt?
Indian engineers generally adapt well to non-native tooling, but plan to maintain English-translated process documentation for at least the primary engineering workflow. TMS doesn’t provide Japanese-language training; what we do provide is structured onboarding so the candidate is up-and-running on day one.
How are India statutory benefits handled?
TMS administers EPF (12% employer + 12% employee), ESI where applicable, professional tax, gratuity (4.81% provision), paid leave per Shops & Establishments Act, and maternity benefits.
What does TMS NOT handle?
TMS handles employment, payroll, statutory compliance, and benefits. Not in scope: IP assignment specifics (in MSA), employee equity/RSU administration, individual income tax filing for Japanese persons, work-visa processing for travel to Japan, Japanese-language training, and direct contracting that bypasses TMS as employer of record.
Illustrative engagement — Japanese SaaS expanding to India
A Tokyo-based B2B SaaS company decides to build a 5-person India engineering team (3 backend, 1 SRE, 1 QA lead) to scale their platform infrastructure. They want full Tokyo-morning overlap.
- Week 0: MSA signed. Salary bands agreed (₹30-55 lakh for senior backend, ₹40-60 lakh for SRE).
- Weeks 1-2: Candidate selection from TMS partner network and the client’s own pipeline.
- Week 3: First 3 candidates onboarded — Indian offer letters, KYC, statutory enrollment, salaries credited. Team starts 6:30am IST shift for Tokyo morning overlap.
- Month 2: Full 5-person team live on TMS payroll. The KK has zero Indian statutory exposure, zero PE risk, single JPY-invoiced monthly bill.
- Month 14: Team grows to 15. Company evaluates entity setup as part of Series B planning. TMS coordinates transition over 90 days.
Hiring in India from Japan?
Free consultation. No minimum headcount. Reply in under 10 minutes during business hours.
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