About ResumeJPA free, honest Japanese-resume tool for people new to Japan

ResumeJP is a free online builder for the Japanese resume — the 履歴書 (rirekisho) and the 職務経歴書 (shokumukeirekisho). It is a project by DIGI スタート!, a small studio that builds practical tools and guides for foreigners navigating work and daily life in Japan. We made ResumeJP because the single document that stands between a newcomer and their first job in Japan is also the one almost no resume tool gets right for non-native applicants.

Why we built it

The Japanese rirekisho is not a Western CV. It is a fixed-format sheet with its own rules: a 30×40 mm photo, era dates, a precise way to write 学歴・職歴, the dreaded free-form 自己PR and 志望動機, and conventions that everyone in Japan absorbs in school but that no one explains to someone who arrived last month. We watched students, working-holiday makers, and 特定技能 workers — many of them from Nepal, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia — handwrite the same form over and over, freeze on the Japanese fields, and lose interviews over avoidable mistakes. ResumeJP exists to remove that barrier.

What ResumeJP does

You fill the form in whatever language you are comfortable with — English, Japanese, Nepali and more — and one click rewrites every field into the natural business Japanese (keigo) that employers expect. You can choose the JIS or MHLW standard layout, or a template tuned for part-time (arubaito), new-graduate, mid-career, dispatch, or English-CV applications, then download a print-ready PDF at the exact A4 or A3 size. There is no account, no email wall, and no watermark, and your resume data stays in your own browser. Alongside the tool we publish practical guides on the questions people actually ask before they apply.

Our approach to accuracy

Everything we write is drawn from the real conventions of Japanese hiring and the official rirekisho formats, including the government (厚生労働省) standard introduced in 2021. We write for the foreign applicant specifically — what to put for residence status, how to show a 資格外活動許可, when handwriting still matters — rather than rewording the same generic advice found everywhere else. When a topic touches immigration or law, we point you to official sources rather than pretend to give legal advice; see our disclaimer.

How it stays free

ResumeJP is free to use and we intend to keep it that way. The site is supported by unobtrusive advertising on our guide and content pages — never inside the editor while you work. That lets us cover hosting and keep building features without charging the people who need the tool most. You can read how we handle data and ads in our privacy policy.

Get in touch

We read every message and use it to fix mistakes and decide what to build next. Found an error, want a feature, or have a question about your resume? Contact us here.