Every new apartment tower, rooftop solar array, car charging bay and server hall in Japan needs people who can safely pull cable, wire switchboards and connect equipment to the grid. Meanwhile, skilled tradespeople are aging. That gap has turned electrical work into one of the more interesting openings for foreign workers who are willing to learn the trade properly and study the language that goes with it.

Electrical work in Japan is tightly regulated, though. You cannot simply arrive with experience from home and start connecting wires. Most wiring jobs require a national licence called Denki Koji Shi, the exams are run in Japanese, and the usual entry route for foreigners is the construction field of the Specified Skilled Worker system. Below we cover licences, residence routes, yen pay, site culture, demand, safety and language.

What an Electrician Does on a Japanese Job Site

The Japanese word for this trade is denki koji, meaning electrical construction work, and the people who do it range from new helpers carrying cable drums to licensed foremen who sign off whole buildings.

Building and Housing Wiring

Crews working on houses, apartments, shops and offices run conduit and cable through walls and ceilings, mount outlets and switches, install lighting fixtures, and wire distribution boards.

Plant and Facility Electrical Work

In factories, hospitals, schools and large commercial buildings, electricians handle heavier cable, motor connections, control panels and receiving equipment that takes in high-voltage power from the utility.

Denki Koji Shi: Japan’s Two Electrician Licence Classes

Under the Electrical Work Act, anyone doing regulated wiring work must hold an electrician licence. There are two levels, Class 2 and Class 1, and both are national qualifications. The licence card is issued by your prefecture.

Class 2 Electrician (Daini Shu)

The Class 2 licence is the entry level and the one most new electricians aim for first. It covers work on installations that receive power at 600 volts or below, which includes ordinary homes, small shops, small offices and household-scale solar systems. There is no experience requirement to sit the exam, and once you pass both parts you can apply for the licence without proving any work history.

Class 1 Electrician (Daiichi Shu)

The Class 1 licence covers everything Class 2 allows, plus larger customer-owned installations such as factories and buildings with a maximum demand under 500 kilowatts. Passing the exam is not enough on its own. To receive the Class 1 licence card, you must also show several years of practical electrical work experience, commonly three years.

Inside the Exam: Written Theory and a Hands-On Wiring Task

Both classes are tested in two stages, and you need to pass both stages to qualify.

• Written (gakka) test. This is a multiple-choice paper, now commonly taken on computer at a test centre, covering electrical theory, wiring methods, equipment, inspection, drawing symbols and the relevant laws. Class 2 has a shorter time limit than Class 1, and a pass mark of around 60 percent is typical.
• Practical skills (gino) test. Candidates bring their own hand tools and complete a wiring task based on a circuit drawing within a strict time limit. Candidate tasks are published in advance. A single serious defect, such as a loose connection or wrong wire colour, can mean failure.

Both classes are generally offered twice a year. The exams are conducted in Japanese, and we have not found any official foreign-language version, so you should assume reading Japanese technical text is part of the test.

Chief Electrical Engineer: The Next Rung Up

Separate from Denki Koji Shi is the chief electrical engineer licence, called denki shunin gijutsusha. It does not license hands-on wiring. Instead, holders supervise the safety, maintenance and inspection of electrical facilities at larger sites such as factories, office towers, hospitals and power plants. It comes in three classes, with the third class being the most common starting point. It can lead to stable building management roles later in a career.

Residence Status Routes for Foreign Electricians

Ordinary tourists cannot work in Japan, and short-term visitors are not allowed to take paid site jobs. Most foreign workers in electrical trades come through one of these routes:

• Specified Skilled Worker, construction field. This is the main door for hands-on site work and is explained in the next section.
• Technical Intern Training. Some workers arrive as interns placed with construction firms. This programme is expected to be replaced by the Employment for Skill Development system, known as Ikusei Shuro, from around April 2027.
• Status without work limits. Permanent residents, spouses of Japanese nationals and similar statuses can take any lawful job, including electrical work, as long as they hold the right licence.

Whichever route applies, the employer usually starts the process. The sequence is a Certificate of Eligibility issued in Japan, then a visa from the Japanese embassy or consulate in your country, then a residence card when you land.

The Construction SSW Field and Where Electrical Work Sits

Construction is one of the fields under the Specified Skilled Worker system, or Tokutei Ginou. Originally, the construction field was split into many narrow trade categories, and a worker qualified in one could not easily help with another. Around 2022 this was reorganised into just three work categories: civil engineering, building construction, and lifeline and facilities.

The lifeline and facilities category is the one most relevant to electricians. Official descriptions cover installing, changing or repairing telecommunications, gas, water, electricity and other lifeline equipment. Electrical and telecom work therefore generally falls here, though you should confirm with the employer exactly which category your job is classed under, because your skills test must match it.

Tests for SSW (i)

Candidates generally need to pass the construction skills evaluation test for their category plus a Japanese test, usually JFT-Basic or JLPT N4 or higher. SSW (i) allows a total stay of up to five years.

SSW (ii) for Experienced Crew Leaders

Construction is one of the fields where SSW (ii) is available. It is aimed at people who can lead other workers and manage a work process, and it can be renewed and may allow a spouse and children to join you. Check the current conditions before planning around it.

Note on the Electrician Licence

An SSW residence status lets you work in the construction field, but it does not replace Denki Koji Shi. If your duties include regulated wiring, you or a licensed colleague must hold the proper licence. In practice, many SSW workers start as assistants under licensed staff while studying for Class 2.

CCUS Registration for Foreign Construction Workers

The Construction Career Up System, usually shortened to CCUS, is an industry database that records each worker’s qualifications, training and days worked on site.

For SSW construction workers, official guidance indicates that the employing company must register both itself and the foreign worker in CCUS as part of its acceptance plan. Requirements and fees can change, so treat this as something to confirm with your employer rather than a fixed rule. A clear record of days worked and licences held can also support promotion later.

Electrician Pay in Japan: Typical Yen Ranges

Pay depends on licence class, experience, region, contractor size and how much overtime the site needs. The figures below are rough monthly or daily amounts before tax and social insurance.

Electrical Role	Typical Pay (Yen)	Licence or Status Usually Needed
Site helper / trainee	¥180,000 to ¥240,000 a month	SSW (i), intern, or open status; no licence yet
Day-rate site worker	¥10,000 to ¥18,000 a day	Open status; licence depends on tasks
Licensed electrician	¥230,000 to ¥330,000 a month	Class 2 Denki Koji Shi
Plant electrician	¥280,000 to ¥400,000 a month	Class 1 Denki Koji Shi plus experience
Solar / EV charger fitter	¥210,000 to ¥310,000 a month	Class 2 for wiring connections
Telecom cabling technician	¥200,000 to ¥290,000 a month	SSW lifeline category or open status
Crew leader / foreman	¥320,000 to ¥450,000 a month	Class 1, often SSW (ii) or long residence
Facility electrical manager	¥300,000 to ¥500,000 a month	Chief electrical engineer licence

These yen amounts are approximate and meant only as a general picture; actual pay can differ widely by prefecture, company, overtime and personal skill. The page offers career information and nothing more. It is not a vacancy notice, and we do not recruit, place workers or give immigration advice. Please confirm every figure and condition with the employer, the Immigration Services Agency of Japan, and Hello Work or the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare before you act.

Day Rates, Monthly Pay and Learning Under a Master

Japanese construction has a long tradition of paying site workers by the day, called nikkyu. A day-rate worker earns only for days actually worked, so rain, holidays and gaps between projects can cut income sharply. Monthly pay, called gekkyu, is steadier.

For SSW construction workers, rules generally expect a stable monthly wage rather than pure day rates, and pay should be at least equal to what a Japanese worker doing the same job would receive. If an offer uses only day rates, ask what you will earn in a slow month.

Training is often informal. Many small electrical firms still work in a master and apprentice style, where a senior electrician, sometimes called the oyakata, teaches newcomers by having them watch, carry, prepare and repeat. Expect to spend your first months on simple tasks such as cutting conduit, stripping cable and keeping the site tidy before you touch live panels.

Working Hours, Overtime and Insurance Protections

The Labour Standards Act sets standard working time at 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week. Work beyond that is overtime and is generally paid at a premium of at least 25 percent, and work between 10pm and 5am usually carries a further late-night premium of at least 25 percent. Construction was long exempt from the general overtime cap, but the cap has applied to the industry since April 2024, with some exceptions for disaster recovery, so very long hours should now be the exception rather than routine.

Japan also sets minimum wages by prefecture. The fiscal 2025 national weighted average was ¥1,121 per hour, and fiscal 2026 rates took effect between October and early December 2026, with Tokyo at around ¥1,280 and the lowest prefecture a little above ¥1,080. Full-time employees are normally enrolled in health insurance, the employees’ pension, employment insurance and workers’ accident insurance.

Where Demand for Electricians Is Rising

• Solar and storage. Japan continues to add rooftop and ground-mounted solar, along with battery systems, and every installation needs connection work by licensed people.
• EV charging. Charging points are spreading to apartment car parks, commercial facilities and highway rest areas, creating steady installation and maintenance work.
• Data centres. Large server facilities, many around Tokyo and Osaka, need huge power supply, backup generators and cooling, which means long projects for electrical contractors.
• Aging infrastructure. Many buildings, schools and public facilities from the high-growth decades need rewiring, lighting upgrades and earthquake-related reinforcement.

Shock, Arc Flash and Falls: Staying Safe

Electrical work combines two of the most serious hazards in construction: electric shock and work at height. Japanese sites typically insist on isolation before work, voltage testers, insulated gloves for some tasks and a morning safety meeting with pointing-and-calling checks.

For work at height, full-body harnesses have become the standard expectation on many sites, and special training is required for some harness use. You have the right to refuse work that is clearly unsafe, and you can report serious problems to the local labour standards inspection office. If you are injured, insist that the accident is reported so that workers’ accident insurance can cover you.

Japanese Technical Vocabulary: The Biggest Hurdle

Many foreign electricians say the hardest part is not the wiring but the words. Drawings, material names, tool names, inspection forms and safety signs are all in Japanese, often with trade slang that textbooks never teach.

Build a personal word list from day one. Learn the terms for cable types, conduit, breakers, distribution boards, earthing, voltage and the common drawing symbols, and write the kanji with its reading. JLPT N4 may get you through the door, but aiming for N3 or higher will make licence study, safety briefings and promotion far easier.

Avoiding Bad Offers and Broker Traps

Walk away from agents who demand large upfront fees for a construction placement or promise a guaranteed licence or visa without tests. Insist on a written contract in a language you understand, and never let an employer hold your passport or residence card.

Wiring Your Future in Japan

Electrical work in Japan rewards patience. Start with the right residence route, usually construction SSW in the lifeline and facilities category, accept that the first year is about learning from experienced hands, and study steadily for Class 2 Denki Koji Shi. With experience you can move toward Class 1, crew leadership and even facility management. Clean energy and digital infrastructure should keep licensed electricians in demand for years.

Electrician Questions From Readers Planning a Move

Can my electrician licence from home be used in Japan?

Generally no. Japan does not automatically recognise foreign electrician licences, so you will usually need to pass the Denki Koji Shi exams in Japanese.

Is Class 2 enough to find work?

For housing, shops and small buildings, a Class 2 licence is widely accepted and is what most employers ask for first. Larger industrial projects tend to prefer Class 1 holders or crews led by one.

Do I need the licence before arriving?

Not usually. Many foreign workers arrive under construction SSW, work as assistants under licensed staff and sit the Class 2 exam after improving their Japanese. Ask your employer whether it supports exam fees and practice materials.