Cookbiz

What Cookbiz does

Cookbiz Co., Ltd. (クックビズ株式会社) operates a Japan-focused vertical job marketplace dedicated to the food service and restaurant industries. Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Osaka, the company is publicly listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TYO: 6558) and employs 51-100 people. The platform serves two sides: food-industry job seekers — including chefs, kitchen staff, servers, sommeliers, managers, bartenders, baristas, and patissiers — and food/hospitality employers including restaurants, dining establishments, hotels, resort operators, catering companies, and supermarket food divisions. Revenue is generated primarily through employer-side job posting fees (transaction-fee B2B marketplace model), while job seeker access and career-support services are provided free of charge.

The product offering consists of two core components: the Cookbiz Job Board (クックビズ求人サイト), a self-serve web marketplace with deep vertical categorization (40+ job categories, 30+ restaurant and cuisine formats including French, Italian, Izakaya, Sushi, Kaiseki, Yakitori, Yakiniku, Ramen, Chinese, etc.), employment-type filtering (full-time, contract, freelance, part-time), and regional filtering across all eight Japanese macro-regions plus overseas; and a Free Career Support Service (無料転職支援サービス), a human-assisted advisory service certified by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (厚生労働省) that supports job seekers from registration through post-hire onboarding at no cost. The platform carries a Privacy Mark (プライバシーマーク) certification from JIPDEC and was most recently renewed in April 2024, with ongoing Terms of Service updates issued in July 2025 and May 2026.

Customers span a diverse set of food/restaurant operators, including large chains and employers with high listing volumes such as 株式会社物語コーポレーション (Monogatari Corporation, 295 listings), 株式会社ピソラ (Pisol, 118), 株式会社KISSUI GROUP (37), 株式会社大起水産 (Daiki Suisan, 29), and リゾートトラスト株式会社 (Resort Trust, 29), alongside featured employers 株式会社ロピア (Lopia), 株式会社利久 (Rikyū), and 株式会社長楽館 (Chōrakukan). Distribution runs through the consumer-facing cookbiz.co.jp site and a separate employer marketplace portal at market.cookbiz.co.jp, supplemented by a 365-day phone career-support hotline. Cookbiz's leadership team includes founder and CEO Kenji Yabuno, Director and CFO Tetsuro Okamoto, and Director and COO Ikuta Makoto. The company historically received venture capital from JAFCO (2012) and SMBC Venture Capital (2014).

Name

Cookbiz

Legal name

Cookbiz Co.,Ltd. (クックビズ株式会社)

Website

https://cookbiz.jp

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Cookbiz (TYO: 6558) is a Japan-focused vertical job marketplace connecting food-and-restaurant-industry job seekers with restaurant, hospitality, and food-service employers through a free-to-seeker, employer-paid platform supplemented by a Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare-certified career advisory service.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Osaka

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Operations

Revenue model

1. Job Posting Fees (Employer): Cookbiz generates revenue by charging employers to post job listings on the platform. This is a B2B marketplace model where restaurants and food service companies pay to access the talent pool of food industry professionals.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Cookbiz operates a specialized online job marketplace exclusively for Japan's food service and restaurant industry, connecting job seekers (chefs, kitchen staff, servers, sommeliers, managers) with restaurant and hospitality employers. The platform is complemented by a free, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare-certified career support service that provides human-assisted guidance from job search through post-hire onboarding at no cost to job seekers, while employers pay to post listings.

Product overview

Cookbiz operates as a unified job recruitment platform for the restaurant and food service industry in Japan. The core offering consists of the Cookbiz Job Board, which enables restaurants and food service companies to post job listings and job seekers to search and apply for positions. An accompanying free career support service provides human advisors to assist job seekers throughout their job search process. The platform organizes job postings by occupation type (hall staff, kitchen staff, chefs, sommeliers, bartenders, etc.), business format (French, Italian, Japanese, izakaya, sushi, etc.), employment type (full-time, contract, part-time), and region.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Cookbiz Job Board (クックビズ求人サイト) A job posting and recruitment platform specifically for the restaurant and food service industry in Japan. Connects job seekers with employers offering positions such as hall staff, kitchen staff, managers, chefs, sommeliers, bartenders, and other food service roles, organized by occupation type, business format, employment type, and region.
• Free Career Support Service (無料転職支援サービス)

Named customers13 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Townwork: Major Japanese part-time and full-time job board operated by Recruit. Directly competes with Cookbiz for food/restaurant employer listings and job seeker applications in Japan, especially in the part-time and entry-level segments.
• Baitoru: Japanese part-time and full-time job board with strong restaurant industry presence. Comparable as a direct job marketplace competitor for employer listings and candidate traffic in Japan's restaurant sector.
• Kyujin Box (求人ボックス): Vertical Japanese job search engine. Comparable as a job marketplace competing for the same employer job-posting fees and candidate eyeballs in Japan, with overlapping employer base.

Broad incumbents

• Gurunavi: Japan's leading restaurant information and reservation platform with employer-side advertising. Comparable as a restaurant-industry platform reaching the same employer customer base, though its primary monetization is restaurant promotion rather than recruitment.
• Indeed: The world's largest generalist job search engine, active in Japan. Comparable as a job marketplace competing for the same employer job-posting dollars and candidate traffic, though not specialized to food/restaurant.
• Recruit Holdings (Indeed, HotPepper): Japan's dominant HR and marketplace conglomerate operating Indeed globally and HotPepper domestically. Directly comparable as a job marketplace serving the same employers and job seekers in Japan, but at vastly greater scale and across all industries.

Regional players

• Hitosara: Japanese restaurant discovery and reservation platform serving consumers. Comparable as an adjacent restaurant-industry digital platform reaching the same employer audience, but primarily focused on consumer-side bookings rather than recruitment.

Emerging players

• Yume Shokuhin (food industry job boards): Food-industry-focused job site targeting food manufacturing and restaurant roles in Japan. Directly comparable as a vertical job marketplace serving similar employers in food-related sectors.
• CareerTaco / FoodieJobs (vertical food job boards): Vertical job boards focused exclusively on hospitality and food service roles. Comparable in niche targeting and employer base to Cookbiz, often serving as direct substitutes in specific markets.

Others

• Engage (エンゲージ): Japanese direct recruitment and job posting platform used by employers including restaurants. Comparable as part of the broader Japan HR-tech ecosystem competing for employer recruitment budgets.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/cookbiz
• Facebookfacebook.com/cookbiz

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors2 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Cookbiz