Scouta matches your role to bilingual professionals you won't find on LinkedIn, and connects you with them directly.
No subscription · No cost until you hire · iOS and Android
Agency fees, once capped at 11%, now run 30 to 40% — the highest rate in the world
The pool is small. The strongest people are already employed and not applying anywhere. And the way most companies hire has not changed while the fees have kept climbing. Shortlists arrive full of the same active names three other agencies are sending. If a search gets difficult, the agency goes quiet and moves to easier roles. You never speak to the candidate directly until interview, so the story you hear is filtered to make the placement happen.
Product · 01
A new applicant arrives.
A toast lands the moment bilingual talent raises their hand for your role.
Here's what's happening with your hiring.
New Applications
5
Active Jobs
8
Unread Messages
3
Yuna Kanade
Kenji Morita
Aiko Sato
Ren Takahashi
Haruka Kobayashi
Sho Nakamura
Senior HR Business Partner/HR Leader
Digital Marketing Manager
Brand Designer
Yuna Kanade applied
New applicantMessages
Yuna Kanade
Kenji Morita
Aiko Sato
Ren Takahashi
Haruka Kobayashi
Sho Nakamura
Yuka Ishikawa
Takeshi Yamamoto
Daiki Fujimoto
Senior HR Business Partner/HR Leader
Location
Tokyo, Japan
Experience
8+ years
Applied for
Senior HR Business Partner/HR Leader
Skills
Status
Reviewing
Passive bilingual talent, anonymous until they apply — not on LinkedIn, not taking recruiter calls.
Matched to what the role needs, with bilingual screening built in. You see who fits — not a pile to sort.
You speak to each other directly. No third party rewriting the message.
No one prioritises whoever is easiest to place. Fit rises to the top.
Every candidate's status, live — no waiting on a weekly update.
Typical bilingual search: 4–6 months. Our target is half that.
Minutes in English or Japanese.
Matched talent applies in one swipe.
Message, schedule, and hire — directly.
Bilingual professionals earn 20 to 35% more than monolingual peers, so these hires are expensive before any fee is added. At 40%, the agency cost climbs with the salary. A flat 20% means you're not paying twice for the same scarcity. Average placement across our roles is ¥12M, from ¥7M to ¥25M and up.
| Fee rate | ¥7M | ¥12M | ¥16M | ¥20M |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional 40% | ¥2.8M | ¥4.8M | ¥6.4M | ¥8.0M |
| Traditional 35% | ¥2.45M | ¥4.2M | ¥5.6M | ¥7.0M |
| Traditional 30% | ¥2.1M | ¥3.6M | ¥4.8M | ¥6.0M |
| Scouta 20% | ¥1.4M | ¥2.4M | ¥3.2M | ¥4.0M |
| You save vs 40% | ¥1.4M | ¥2.4M | ¥3.2M | ¥4.0M |
At the ¥12M average placement
Figures from the Scouta brief: ¥12M average placement, ¥7M to ¥25M range.
Market rate 30 to 40%, against Scouta's flat 20%.
Saved per hire, at the average
Same candidate. Same hire. Half the fee.
We understand the problem because we lived inside it. And we can fix it because we know how to build the technology that does.
Two founders who have built companies from nothing. One knows recruitment from the inside. The other knows how to build the technology to change it.
Founder & CEO
French, in Japan for over a decade. Ten years placing bilingual talent, first at two of Japan's largest HR companies, then at a boutique search firm he co-founded in 2019. He saw exactly where the model was failing and designed a different one.
Co-founder · Technology & Strategy
A technology entrepreneur and researcher with twenty years building companies in Japan. PhD in Knowledge Science, lectures on AI at a leading Tokyo university, and serves as Tokyo Director of the Founder Institute. He leads Scouta's technology and platform.
Bilingual hiring in Japan is hard, and it is not getting easier. The pool is small, the strongest people are not applying to anything, and the process has stayed the same for twenty years while the fees kept climbing.
We did not set out to take people out of recruitment. Recruitment is a people business and it will stay one. What we set out to fix is everything around the people: the delays, the sorting by hand, the same few candidates circulating between the same few agencies, and the lack of visibility for the company and the candidate alike.
So the technology does the part technology is good at. It surfaces the right people, and it makes applying take one swipe. Once the introduction is made, it is people talking to people. The result is a faster process for you, a fairer one for the candidate, and a cost that reflects the efficiency instead of the tradition.
/ Free benchmark
Get the 2026 Bilingual Hiring Benchmark: current Tokyo salary ranges by role and function, real agency fee rates, and your cost per hire on Scouta versus the market. One page. No sales call required.
of companies in Japan struggle to hire bilingual professionals. Three in four can't solve this with the tools they have. The answer is a different pool, not another agency doing the same thing.
openings per 100 job seekers. More roles than people. Candidates hold the leverage, and slow processes lose them.
unemployment, roughly, and the senior bilingual shortage is deeper still. Almost nobody who can do the job is out of work. They're employed and not applying — exactly who Scouta reaches.
fees, once capped at 11%, now 30 to 35% standard and up to 40% quoted. Nothing in the old model stops it rising.
20% flat · only on hire
Direct to candidate. No monthly fee, no subscription.
Launching August 2026.
Post a RoleFor the roles that need a person.
Some hires still need one. Confidential searches, senior and C-level, and roles where the right candidate has to be found and persuaded rather than found applying. Our consultants run a full search: proper intake, screening in Japanese and English, updates at every stage, honest feedback, and involvement through to start date.
Available as contingency or retained. Fees discussed in a meeting.
Talk to UsSame company, same standards, same candidate pool. The platform is the default. The consultants are there for the roles that demand one.
No. A job board gives volume with no filter. An agency gives a filter but a narrow pool and a recruiter's bias on top. Scouta gives you a wider pool and a real filter, with nobody in the middle.
A flat 20% of first-year salary, paid only when you hire. No subscription, no monthly fee. If you don't hire, you pay nothing.
The process is more efficient, so the fee is lower. You're not getting less. You're getting a direct, AI-matched process instead of a manual, recruiter-led one.
Passive bilingual professionals, mid-career through C-level, who stay anonymous until they choose to apply. Most are not visible on LinkedIn.
The platform launches August 2026. Post a role or join early access now to be matched from day one.
Our search team handles confidential, senior, and hard-to-fill roles as contingency or retained. Same standards, same pool.
Stop paying 40% for the same names everyone else is chasing. Post a role and reach the bilingual professionals no one else can.
No subscription · No cost until you hire · Your job data stays yours
/ Contact us
