Available now in 62 countries, following each country’s own food hygiene rules.

Chef Hygiene
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Japan: for every food business

Ready for the food inspection. Every day.

In Japan the app follows the Food Sanitation Act (fully in force in its revised form since 1 June 2021), its Cabinet Order and Enforcement Regulation, with the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's (MHLW) guidance told apart from the law. Chef Hygiene keeps your daily records; it does not license you, and it is not approved by MHLW, any public health centre or any Japanese authority.

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The Chef Hygiene app on a computer: the home screen of a kitchen with its daily checksThe Chef Hygiene app on a phone: the home screen of a kitchen with its daily checks

Japan: food hygiene rules

Inspection body
Your public health centre (保健所), for the prefecture, health-centre city or special ward that licenses the restaurant
Public rating
No
Languages in the app
English

Your inspection

Every restaurant needs a licence (飲食店営業許可) from its prefecture, or its health-centre city or special ward (Food Sanitation Act, Arts 54 and 55), valid for at least 5 years as the prefecture sets. The public health centre (保健所) inspects, with food sanitation inspectors (食品衛生監視員). Prefectures may add their own rules by ordinance.

The inspector can order improvements, and the prefecture can suspend the business or revoke the licence: a missing hygiene plan or records has no fine of its own, but can lead to that. Fines: up to ¥3,000,000 or up to 3 years in prison for selling unsafe food, ignoring an order or running while suspended; up to ¥2,000,000 for breaking food or storage standards, running without a licence or labelling breaches; up to ¥1,000,000 for breaking facility standards or an improvement order; up to ¥500,000 for refusing an inspection. A company can be fined up to ¥100,000,000. After a conviction or revocation a licence can be refused for 2 years.

Hygiene rating

Japan has no national public hygiene grade and no grade on the door.

“Law” is a binding rule. “Official guidance” is not law, but inspectors expect it. “Chef Hygiene default” is a value the app checks against where no rule gives a number.

Temperatures

  • LawSince 1 June 2021 every restaurant, whatever its size, writes a hygiene plan "based on HACCP thinking" (HACCPの考え方を取り入れた衛生管理), makes staff know it, records and keeps how hygiene was done, and reviews the plan (Enforcement Regulation, Art 66-2). Most follow an industry handbook (手引書) that MHLW lists.
  • LawFridge 10°C or colder and freezer −15°C or colder are the legal storage standards for listed foods (such as meat at 10°C and frozen foods at −15°C), and the daily check in MHLW's listed handbook. Fridges, freezers and heating equipment have thermometers. Chef Hygiene aims for 5°C and −18°C as good practice, not the law.
  • Official guidanceMHLW's guidance (its Mass-Cooking Facility Hygiene Manual): cook to a core of 75°C for at least 1 minute (bivalves such as oysters 85–90°C for 90 seconds), keep cooked food at 65°C or hotter (or 10°C or colder), cool it to about 20°C within 30 minutes or about 10°C within 60 minutes, and eat it within 2 hours of cooking.
  • Official guidanceNo official reheating temperature: the small-restaurant handbook judges reheating by bubbling, look and temperature. Chef Hygiene uses 75°C only as a probe guide.
  • Chef Hygiene defaultChef Hygiene asks for fridge checks at opening and closing. That is our choice: the handbook's daily sheet is filled in at the end of the day.

Staff, training and health

  • LawEvery business appoints a Food Sanitation Supervisor (食品衛生責任者): a cook, dietitian or similar, or someone who took the prefecture's course. The law asks the supervisor of a licensed business to try to attend refresher courses regularly, with no national interval: the public health centre sets it (for example, yearly in Tokyo).
  • LawStaff health is checked every day (diarrhoea, vomiting, fever, jaundice, infected cuts or skin), and the business decides who stops work with food. Stool tests (検便) are the law when the public health centre directs them; monthly tests are MHLW's guidance for kitchens cooking 300 meals at once or 750 a day.

Allergens

  • LawFor packaged food, 9 allergens are mandatory: egg, milk, wheat, shrimp, crab, buckwheat, peanut, walnut and, since 1 April 2026, cashew nut (food made by 31 March 2028 may keep its old labels). The Consumer Affairs Agency also lists recommended ones. Restaurants have no labelling duty; telling customers what is in each dish is voluntary, and our advice.

Fire safety checks

  • LawWhere 30 or more people (staff and guests) can be in the building, a fire prevention manager (防火管理者) is appointed (Class A course from 300 m², else Class B) and the fire department told, and fire-fighting and evacuation drills are held at least twice a year, the fire department told beforehand (Fire Service Act Order Art 1-2 and 3; Regulation Art 3).
  • LawA restaurant that uses fire (gas, stoves) has fire extinguishers, whatever its size, unless the building is under 150 m² and every appliance that uses fire has a safety device (such as an oil overheat cut-off or an automatic extinguisher) (Fire Service Act Order Art 10).
  • LawFire equipment such as extinguishers and the fire alarm is inspected at intervals the Fire and Disaster Management Agency sets, never more than 1 year apart, and for a restaurant's building the results are reported to the fire department once a year (Fire Service Act Regulation Art 31-6).
  • Chef Hygiene defaultService dates for alarms, extinguishers, emergency lights and electrics: we did not read the agency's intervals, so Chef Hygiene suggests dates you can change.
  • Official guidanceEmergency: 119 for fire and ambulance, 110 for the police.

Records

  • LawHygiene records are kept for a reasonable period, set from how long the food is used (Enforcement Regulation, Art 66-2); MHLW's listed handbook advises about 1 year and showing them to the inspector when asked. Pest control at least twice a year, its record kept 1 year; a private water supply tested every year, its certificate kept 1 year.
  • Official guidanceThere is no government records app: MHLW's listed handbooks have blank forms, and any paper or digital form is fine if it covers your plan.

Official sources

Checked

This page is general information, not legal advice. Check with your local authority.

Japan: the Chef Hygiene app

The app loads these rules for your kitchen, checks your records against them and keeps proof for the inspector.

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