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Hire vs retainer

Hire bilingual PM vs fractional retainer

Decide between hiring a full-time bilingual PM/PdM and starting a fractional retainer, using defaults you can edit.

This page compares a full-time hire with a monthly retainer only.

Year-1 gap (¥)

¥5,391,781

All-in hire year 1 is higher

Days to first decision

Hire 130 daysRetainer 14 days

Hire is fill + ramp. Retainer is days to start.

Who this is for

For founders and country general managers

  • A Japan tech company of about 30–100 people, with an English-speaking HQ or investors
  • A foreign company’s Japan office

Not for a small business looking for the free diagnostic.

Inputs

Your assumptions

Assumption

Default is an editable assumption, not a Seranova market census; raise it if your bilingual search is senior.

Assumption

AirTA discusses 30–40% of annual compensation. The default stays 30%.

Assumption

Midpoint of AirTA’s 90–110 days for in-house teams filling bilingual roles. Default is 100.

Assumption

The 30-day default is an editable assumption, not a published average. It is added to days-to-first-decision. Its cost joins the total only if you turn the switch on.

Assumption

Default is the published monthly floor, ¥600,000. You can edit it. Year 1 is monthly × 12.

Assumption

Default is 14 days. A Seranova operations assumption, not a third-party figure.

Optional: hours per week
Assumption

Not used for year-1 retainer. Year 1 stays monthly × 12. Leave this blank if you do not need it.

Results

All-in year 1 vs retainer

All-in hire, year 1

¥12,591,781

Salary + recruiter fee + vacancy cost + ramp cost if on

Retainer, year 1

¥7,200,000

¥600,000 × 12

Year-1 gap

¥5,391,781

Hire year 1 minus retainer year 1. Positive means the hire costs more.

Days to first decision

Hire 130 / Retainer 14

Hire is vacancy days + ramp days. Retainer is days to start.

How we calculate

Formulas

FTE all-in year 1 ≈ salary + (salary × recruiter fee %) + (salary × vacancy days / 365) + ramp cost. Ramp cost is included only when the toggle is on, and then it is salary × ramp days / 365. When the toggle is off, ramp cost is 0.

Retainer year 1 ≈ monthly × 12. Hours per week are not used.

Days to first decision: hire ≈ vacancy days + ramp days. Retainer ≈ days to start.

Each yen term is rounded to the nearest yen, then added. A year is 365 days. The gap is this model’s output, not a published savings rate.

With these inputs:

¥8,000,000 + ¥2,400,000 + ¥2,191,781 + ¥0 = ¥12,591,781

¥600,000 × 12 = ¥7,200,000

Hire 130 days, retainer 14 days

Plain verdict

Hire / Retainer / Hybrid

Retainer

With these inputs, both conditions in the first clause are true.

If the all-in hire cost for year 1 is higher than the retainer and the hire takes more days to a first decision, the verdict is Retainer; if the all-in hire cost for year 1 is lower and the need is marked full-time ongoing, the verdict is Hire; otherwise the verdict is Hybrid.

Sources

Sources

AirTA (Daniel Smith), updated October 2026

https://airta.jp/blog/bilingual-hiring-japan

  • “Bilingual roles in Japan run 30-60% above the comparable Japanese-only position…”
  • “In-house teams average 90-110 days to fill bilingual roles…”
  • “30-40% of annual compensation”

The 100-day default is the midpoint of 90–110. The ¥8,000,000 salary default is not a figure from this article.

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This is a model, not a market census. The figures come from the assumptions you edit. It is not a count of bilingual hiring or fractional spend in Japan.