Just go to Google News and search of Japanese turning to resignation agencies.
All it takes is one news org doing a small story a month ago and now we get hundreds of stories from news orgs around the world with all kinds of opinions and mutations to the original story. Its like watching bacteria reproduce. Soon we will see antibiotic resistance.
More than a decade ago I saw a story about what happened to a "Swiss National" who was jailed in the UAE for three poppy seeds on their shirt. It was quite a disturbing story and was reported around the time some more high profile cases of people being arrested in UAE for what would be normal things in western countries. I saw the same story with the same language appear in dozens of news sites I read and then got suspicious that the wording was near identical and the individual never named.
search for "swiss national jailed UAE poppy seeds" and you can still see some of the articles
Anyway, I contacted the NGO (who it seems does good work, btw!) and asked who this person was and what happened to them. I got a response that during an interview about a more prominent case they told one journalist that it was just a rumour they heard and the story snowballed from there. Nobody contacted them to get more details.
The point I took is not that anyone is malicious or has some sinister agenda but that budgets in newsrooms had been so cut to the bone and "content" needed to be produced as fast as possible to get the clicks, to churn out those stores, and get that ad revenue that nobody had time to do basic fact checking. They were incentivised by the system not to.
Not surprised the story is being spread around. I'm sure that a lot of corporations would be happy to amplify a story that will make workers in other countries feel better about not being treated as badly as Japanese workers are by their employers, but I hope it just gets people thinking about how given the chance employers will abuse us to whatever extent we allow them to. Maybe it'll get people thinking about what can be done to improve things where they are or at least make sure things never get as bad.
why do her videos have 18M+ views? Is there something special about her "day in the life of" vs everyone else's? Or did the algorithm just decide to highlight her?
I think they're just short, punchy, and about an interesting subject matter (being a schoolteacher in Japan). The algorithm just fed the cycle once it got going.
In Austria you can eg end your Apartment lease via a specific court form that removes all ambiguity to wether they have received this in time or whatever. It cannot be refused since it is not filed with the landlord directly but served to him by court. Since Austria requires you to specify a known address to the government it is basically your problem then if you are not present. It is mostly used if your rental agreement contains language in conflict with the law about when you can end the lease. It basically reverses the roles since they cannot refuse the cancellation only appeal it and companies will obviously not do that based on leases that contradict law. You pay 100 EUR so you don’t have to communicate any more about it with the landlord which can be quite the good deal
Need is not a matter of my or your opinion. The fact that they exist shows that they are required. Have you heard of similar agencies in other countries?
> Japan’s chronic labour shortage – a symptom of its low birthrate – has also made employers more determined to retain staff, even if it means intimidating them into staying
Holy moly. Me dumb would think if there is labor shortage then employers would compete to offer the best wage, work ethics, working conditions, and so on.
That's basically the 'hand of the free market', people will go where they have better condition. Those who retain staff through fear are in for a rough ride, you can't go against human nature even in society like Japan that emphasize abnegation so much.
In other countries what they would do is push for more immigration so that they can remain in dominant position, but thankfully for the Japanese they don't have that issue.
I bet that Japanese labors condition will drastically increase in the coming 10 years.
>I bet that Japanese labors condition will drastically increase in the coming 10 years.
That sounds too optimistic to me. The same problem (shrinking young workforce and hellish working conditions) has been going on for a couple decades now with no end in sight. Reform seems impossible; improvement will only come when the big companies collapse and are replaced by companies run by the younger generation who don't see indentured servitude as a virtue. Because no way is anyone in the older generation going to willingly give up their feudalistic power over their employees, they'd rather see their company go bankrupt.
Because it really is not. Health care in general is large cut for gdp in any developed system. So if you substantially increased wages and number of workers. You would also need to either run higher budget shortfalls. Or bump taxes a bit. And voters really are not going to take these, even if nurses would get paid.
in the US, it just means billionaires would have a slight cut to their hundreds of billions of profit every single year that comes from deliberately hamstringing an industry and causing millions of unnecessary deaths
You're not allowed to solve anything in the US in a way that causes already rich people to make slightly less profit. All other options will get explored but never that one.
It's not unpaid. Payment is pretty low though, around 300 bucks per month. Also it's 50% longer than military and you're forbidden from using or owning a gun for 15 years because pacifism is the only accepted reason to opt out of military service.
"Many voters were apparently swayed by warnings from health organizations and charities, which had said they would not be able to cope without the 14,000 young men who opt to carry out community service each year.One of them was Alfred Körbel, a 74-year-old from Vienna.
"Civilian service is very important for our society," he told DW. "Organizations like the Red Cross and other health care providers would not be able to keep going without such support."
There was a big generational gap in voting trends, with older people more likely to support conscription. Heidenkamp explains that there was "a blend of different motives" that led to the outcome in favor of conscription."
In short, "we need to keep it as otherwise who would do that" instead of paying more :<
The people who set the prices of labour based on the productivity of the worker. The Global Council of Price Fixers, who if not but for, we could take all the profits of the engineers and redistribute them to the teachers. So that we can make sure every $1 an engineer could've turned into $100, a school can turn it into 50 cents.
Not allowing immigration and simultaneously having a large decline in birth rates, thus a worker shortage is largely what caused Japan's economy to be in the stagnant state its been in for the past 20 years. Before that, everyone thought Japan would be the world economic powerhouse.
The US economy has boomed, largely in part due to the rise of software and technology, and most of the big firms in that space were started by young people and immigrants, things Japan is choosing to have less and less of.
the US economy has boomed largely in part due to money printer brrrrrrrrrring for a very long time. it isn't particularly booming right now with no ZIRP.
immigration didn't save UK and Germany, and it will not save Japan either. no one in their sane mind will look at Western Europe and say 'yep, we want the same thing here. we want to be minorities in our own cities, because That's A Good Thing'.
The US economy was booming before the ZIRP began though, and that was on the strength of the technology industry.
Immigration does fix two particular problems though, especially targeted immigration of skilled workers rather than refugees:
1) It balances an aging, shrinking population which usually stifles innovation and depresses wages (both of which are happening in Japan right now).
2. It increases the talent density of industries. Talented people exist in every country and culture in the world. Attracting them to your country with a wage higher than their home wage is a good way to snowball a competitive industry (because these talented people make things successful leading to more opportunities for more talented people).
London, Birmingham and God only knows how many other cities in the UK. London in particular is the most obvious example of why accusations of paranoia and alarmism are either malice or stupidity - the city has changed from being over 95% aboriginal to <50% aboriginal in just 40 years. and it didn't even end there - now it's below 40%.
and when all the other cities in UK, France, Germany, Sweden and other "wir schaffen das" countries change as dramatically, the people who are currently saying "it isn't happening" will change their tune to "it's actually a good thing"
Not necessarily. The Roman emperor Diocletian's response to labor shortages was to revoke civil rights: tie peasants to the land and make many urban jobs hereditary.
Japan also has a stagnant economy, so companies can't afford to get into bidding wars over talent and offer lavish salaries and benefits like they do in the US.
Doubtful. National-wide problems don't face budget problems like a struggling family would. There's always some money around, but certain people on influential positions want to take it all -- that's all there is to it really.
Or in other words, companies absolutely can bump pays, even with something not huge like 5-10% and they would still be fine, probably better even. But we can't have that when the CEO needs another yacht, or whatever it is that those empty people always chase. And it's somehow never enough.
The root cause of the problem is how heavily intertwined the banking system is with bigcos in Japan. It's basically impossible for a small startup that competes with a large keiretsu to get funding, so there's no incentive for bigcos to improve their archaic labour and operational processes, which is why Japan has had the lowest labour productivity among G7 countries for the past few decades. Given how abusive work practices have stifled Japanese birth rates, the problem will eventually be solved by natural selection: either Japan will develop a culture with better work-life balance, or the population will dwindle away to nothing and it will simply cease to exist as a nation.
India has mandatory EPF (India's counterpart of the 401(k)) contribution for salaried employees, and in cases of dual employment (i.e. dual streams of employer deposits) it causes all sorts of issues and in most cases result in immediate blacklisting of the employee.
Also, labor protection for white-caller workers is non-existent in India. Basic expectations like fixed working hours, 5-day weeks, paid overtime etc are luxuries only attributable to the absolute top cream of employers (which mostly tend to be non-Indian MNCs). Other basic things like 2-week notices, flexible retirement and paternal leaves are just straight-up absent, even in top employers.
I worked with Indian off-shore and on-shore outsourcers, and their working conditions terrified me. These were IT consultants, and as you said, all but the tiniest percentage at the very top were treated like slaves.
There are 2 types of companies in India at present:
1. Services
2. Products
The product companies's culture and environment are on-par with silicon valley and this includes a good pay as well.
Services is another matter. The fundamental issue is the business model. These companies earn revenue per person and hence the incentive is to over-staff or over-sell the people needed. There is no incentive to solve or be pro-active about customer's problems.
Not in India but in Hungary you also have exit paperwork. Without the exit papers from your previous company, a new company cannot begin making social security contributions on your behalf, which means your employment is not legal (there is a grace period I think but most companies will not allow you to start work without the exit papers). Where I work this is not weaponised to stop people leaving, but we do withhold the exit papers until the last day of the notice period (it is common in Hungary to have to give 30-60 days’ notice to your current employer) as a type of enforcement.
Same in my country, to handover the information about leave days taken etc. Employer is not legally allowed to withhold it, though (but some use it as a leverage to get the employee to return all work equipment etc).
At a coarser level it works in India, but not at granular level. If you are involved in a lawsuit then it can drag for years. So essentially it becomes "justice delayed is justice denied".
The less said about Gandhi the better. He had an amazing PR in the age when there was no concept of PR.
The world has always been divide on: Owners and workers. This transcends communism and capitalism. Owners always wants more work out of workers. Owners unknowingly or knowingly behave as if they own the people. This was literally true when slavery was widespread.
Even in western countries we find the unwritten understanding between Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt not to poach each other's engineers [1]. Where is a the "free hand of markets" here? Does it not limit the career opportunities for employees?
Activision Blizzard, one of the top AAA game developer had huge culture problems. There is a lawsuit as well [2]
How is it in the land of free and ideals of Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln get to a point where humans are treated like corporate property?
They can IF they see a working and safe alternative.
But one trait of abusive relationships is, that the abuser destroys the self esteem of the victim, making them believe, they cannot stand on their own and that they need the abuser. And that they should rather be thankful ..
Which is why safe houses were founded.
To provide such a temporary alternative.
It's not really a technical issue, they just pretend it is. It's an abuse by the employers, and that's not something you can fix with certified mail.
Likely they just find a way to make the certified mail not work when it is in your favor, while of course it works perfectly when you get delivered some notice of trouble for not showing up at work.
>“In Japan, companies are traditionally strong – what your employer says goes,” he says. “And Japanese people are generally reluctant to rock the boat. Resigning is seen as escaping and evading your responsibilities. But that is changing.”
Oh man.... wait until the youth hear about the US custom of Job Hopping every year to get better pay. The labor markets everywhere are shrinking as people like me are yeeted, or age out of the supply.
No wonder the Japanese model is to have a job for life... you're a serf in that model.
I would just start working for a different company and ignore the one I don't want to work for. What is the one trying to hold me going to do? Fire me for abstention? Well that's my goal to begin with.
Then just refuse to understand the task which is being given to you. They can't sue you because you suddenly become stupid. Do it until your KPI is 0 and then your company has no other option then to fire you.
> Japan’s chronic labour shortage – a symptom of its low birthrate – has also made employers more determined to retain staff, even if it means intimidating them into staying. Some force workers to find their own replacements before accepting their resignations or rip up their resignation letters in front of them.
You'd think that in a market economy a labor shortage would result in rises in wages and improvements in working conditions because labors hold more leverage in negotiations. And yet.
Interesting. On the funny side, glad to hear there are more then 100 of these companies because workers in these companies probably need to ask a competition to hand their resignation letter.
Back at a previous job in a Japanese Traditional Company over a decade ago, a guy had been trying to quit for months.
‘Tradition’ has it that before you quit, you have to schedule a chat with your team lead, who will then direct your request to the department head for approval. (Yes, you need _permission_ to quit. Fuck the law)
This person was a fairly senior engineer and thus quite essential to the company so they kept giving him the run around, rescheduling his chats and not giving him a direct answer.
One day, a letter addressed to the dept head came, looking all important and official, like it came from a client. The dept head opened the letter and after taking a quick glance immediately tossed it. Our senpai engineer then jumped up and shouted across the entire office, you have seen my notice now, you cannot deny my resignation! I quit! And he stormed off like a boss.
Basically the gist of the story is that they cannot deny your resignation if requested but as long as they don’t acknowledge it they can pretend you never requested it. That’s the origin story of these companies.
This is not unique to Japan btw, in most countries I know of you can't just stop showing up to work (just like employer can't just fire you). Yes, you will be fired, but you may also face legal consequences. It's also not socially acceptable.
hell even in the US, every single white collar job i've had required references, which is basically sort of a "quit your job on good terms or else you're gonna struggle more for the next one". the unfortunate reality is that i've worked for several bosses that turned out to not be very nice people and had a relationship with me where they acted like they hated me and was worthless but also upset when i tried to leave, which is at odds of their opinion of me not being that valuable? capitalism is tiresome
Can't you just avoid the suit notice, the same way they avoid the resignation notice?
I mean, I'm sure you're right. I just want to highlight that it's actually oppressive bullshit perpetrated by the rich, not "a funny quirk of a foreign culture". Of course when you try to avoid the notice, it won't work.
Do you think just not showing up to work one day is OK? A honest question, it's interesting to me from a cultural point of view. I agreed to my current contract, and a part of that contact is "if I want to quit I either give a months notice, or agree to a shorter notice together with my company". This just sounds like an adult thing to do to honor that agreement. (I live in Europe btw).
Of course we both agree that company straight up refusing to let you go is oppressive and scummy.
> agreed to my current contract, and a part of that contact is "if I want to quit I either give a months notice
This is fine. What's not fine is not being able to determine when that notice period starts, or if it's allowed to start at all. This is the context of this thread.
Having a legal avenue for an employer to never allow an employee to quit is incredibly dystopian. Some might say analogous to slavery.
If your boss is being smartass by keeping you in job through a loophole (refusing notices), then there is no reason for you to keep being decent and play by expected rules either.
> Japan’s chronic labour shortage – a symptom of its low birthrate – has also made employers more determined to retain staff, even if it means intimidating them into staying.
It's not as if there aren't other ways to convince workers to stay on the job. It's kind of telling that they resort to threats and harassment before they try better wages/benefits or more flexible hours.
When employees feel like they can't leave an abusive job you're just a tiny step from slavery. Japanese workers clearly need to assert themselves. If for some of them this is the only way they feel comfortable doing it, at least it's something. Nobody should feel powerless to leave a job they hate.
>Japanese workers clearly need to assert themselves.
I would hesitate to make such an assertion without deeply understanding Japanese culture. There are always trade-offs. The Japanese people have a very unique culture with a lot of positive attributes; it could be that this phenomena is a side-effect of a greater good. To wit, the notion of "loyalty" in Western firms has all but disappeared, in both directions, along with pensions and the rest. As with an engineering decision, you must consider the trade-offs carefully before making a change, or you risk making things worse.
I'd argue that the notion of "loyalty" in Eastern firms isn't doing very well either considering how employees are being mistreated. Employers abusing their workers certainly aren't loyal and employees who are being abused or intimidated and feel unsafe leaving that job aren't sticking around out of a sense of devotion for their company. I don't think people have to choose between slavery and pensions either. There is clearly a lot of room for a much healthier middle.
In any case, whatever the consequences would be to Japanese culture if workers stopped having to pay someone to feel safe leaving their job I feel pretty comfortable saying it would be well worth it.
Have you considered the possibility that the good effects are for some smaller group, such as business owners and managers? If we're going to be wise and realise that all decisions have advantages and disadvantages, we should also realise these are not distributed equally.
I'm sure slavery had advantages too, for the owners.
All it takes is one news org doing a small story a month ago and now we get hundreds of stories from news orgs around the world with all kinds of opinions and mutations to the original story. Its like watching bacteria reproduce. Soon we will see antibiotic resistance.