r/antiwork • u/IMSLI • 7d ago
Know your Worth đ Japanese people are starting to quit their jobs
https://economist.com/asia/2025/03/27/japanese-people-are-starting-to-quit-their-jobs826
u/IMSLI 7d ago
Japanese people are starting to quit their jobs
After decades of inertia, workers are now on the move. Why?
https://economist.com/asia/2025/03/27/japanese-people-are-starting-to-quit-their-jobs
Kawata Yasutoshi was never cut out for traditional Japanese corporate life. As a former guitarist in a heavy-metal band, he found working at a large electronics firm frustrating: particularly the rigid hierarchy, where youngsters did whatever their seniors said. A lot of the work was inefficient, and many hours slipped away either at his desk or at obligatory drinking sessions with his colleagues. Leaving proved tricky, too. When he decided to move to a global IT company a decade ago his superiors berated him, even calling him a âtraitorâ. Now in his late 40s, Mr Kawata has changed jobs again. âI was hungry for a challenge,â he says.
These days Mr Kawata is less of an outlier. In Japan the ideal worker was once employed fresh from graduation and expected to stick with one company for lifeâreaping the benefits of a seniority-based promotion system as he (usually not she) aged. But this rigid âsalarymanâ model is eroding. While job-hoppers remain less common in Japan compared with Western countries, they are on the rise.
The number of regular workers shifting to another full-time job reached 990,000 in 2024, an increase of more than 60% from a decade ago. In a 2024 survey by the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 21% of young Japanese employees said they plan to stay with their current employer âuntil retirementâ, down from 35% in 2014. The trend reflects Japanâs demographic reality too; workers have more bargaining power when they choose jobs as the working-age population shrinks. According to one survey, over half of Japanese companies face a shortage of regular workers. Japanâs once-mighty civil service has also faced an exodus of smart young employees looking for something more exciting.
Japanâs archetypical salaryman worker emerged in the post-war boom period (coinciding with Showa, the era of Emperor Hirohitoâs reign). Their loyalty was demonstrated through long hours at the office and after-hours bonding. A famous advertisement for an energy drink in the 1980s asked, celebrating the dedication of corporate warriors, âCan you fight 24 hours?â
But younger generations have started to question this way of working. The share of men taking paternity leave has jumped from 2% of those eligible a decade ago to 30% in 2023. âThe Showa-era workstyle is collapsing,â says Ono Hiroshi of Hitotsubashi University Business School. Matsunami Tatsuya, a millennial in Tokyo, thinks that âso many Japanese people donât find joy in their work.â The salarymen he saw on trains when growing up looked more like lifeless zombies. Determined not to follow the same path, he launched his own recruitment agency, matching workers with startups that are tackling social issues.
At the office, tensions are brewing across generations. Young workers complain about hatarakanai ojisan, âolder men who donât workâ, referring to veterans who contribute little but remain protected by Japanâs strict labour laws. In a survey in 2022 nearly half of employees in their 20s and 30s reported having such colleagues, citing them as a major cause of falling workplace morale. They also tend to clog upper-management positions, leaving younger workers little room to advance. âWindows 2000â is another phrase to mock such senior slackersâa play on their hefty „20m ($132,000) salaries. During the pandemic, Japanâs unemployment rate remained around 3% (by comparison, Americaâs rose from 4% to nearly 15%). Mr Ono likens Japanâs rigid labour market to a âstagnant bathtubâ, where water cannot be drained or refreshed.
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u/IMSLI 7d ago
Calls for regulatory reform have grown. In 2019 the then head of Keidanren, Japanâs largest business federation, declared that the countryâs lifetime-employment system was âno longer sustainableâ. More recently, during the Liberal Democratic Partyâs leadership race last year, Koizumi Shinjiro, one of the leading candidates, pledged to loosen dismissal rules to promote labour fluidityâthough his proposal sparked fierce debate, with conservative candidates warning against hasty changes.
But though policy is slow to adapt, attitudes are shifting among older workers too. A famous saying in Japan known as the 35-year-old limit theory warns that changing careers after that age is almost impossible. That theory is starting to crumble. According to Recruit, an employment agency, the number of job-hoppers in their 40s to 50s increased sixfold over the past decade. Wakatsuki Mitsuru, 44, recently left his job at a big Japanese firm after having spent more than two decades there. âI probably could have coasted along for another 20 years until retirement,â he says. âBut I couldnât help thinking: is that what I want?â Labour shortages also mean that companies that used to focus on hiring fresh graduates now increasingly welcome mid-level talent.
This shift has big economic implications. In Japan, a lack of labour fluidity has meant that wage rises depend on shunto, the annual spring wage negotiations. Another Recruit study finds that nearly two-fifths of job-hoppers now see their wages rise by more than 10%. That was true for less than one-third of them in 2021. While Japanese wages have remained low by rich-world standards, growing labour mobility âcould improve the situationâ, observes Koike Masato, an economist at Sompo Institute Plus, a think-tank in Tokyo. It could also inject dynamism into Japanâs ossified institutions. âWhen you have the same people staying in the same organisation, the mindset becomes increasingly inward,â says Mr Wakatsuki, reflecting on his previous workplace. Mr Kawata, the bandsman-turned-IT worker, agrees. âJapanese firms need wind from the outside to blow in.â
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u/These-Maintenance-51 7d ago
Appreciate this. So tired of news sites putting stuff behind paywalls.
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u/SOTI_snuggzz 7d ago
In the defense of new sites, they are a business. Put it behind paywalls- people complain. Put ads on the site - people complain. I know this sub is literally antiwork, but weâre not in a post work world just yet
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u/Zerox_Z21 7d ago
See, I remember the old days when ads used to be unintrusive but the websites still made sufficient profit to exist.
Maybe if some profit was enough, things could've stayed the same.
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u/Sl33pingD0g 7d ago
Quality of journalism has fallen in line with increased cost to access, classic enshitification.
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u/Fitz5252 7d ago
This is literally a case of voting with your wallet, find a platform that provides unbiased articles and subscribe.
Even if they're a non profit there are still many expenses that have to be covered.
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u/These-Maintenance-51 7d ago
I don't care about ads but I'm not going to subscribe to anything to read an article. News and informing the people shouldn't require a subscription fee.
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u/SOTI_snuggzz 7d ago
Unfortunately thatâs not the world we live in. Everyone who works, deserves to be paid. Being a reporter is a job, and as such they deserved to be paid.
Iâm not sure what you do for a living, but Iâm sure someone somewhere could argue it should be free. And not matter how much you love your job, loving your job doesnât put food on the table
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u/Disp69696969 7d ago
Could someone please clarify the Windows 2000 remark? Imma use that immediately if I'm certain what it means.
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u/senshiworld 6d ago
It's a play on words with the Japanese numeral for the fat salary: „20m or 20,000,000 ($132,000) in Japanese is 2ćäž (ni sen man). Ni=2, sen=1000, Man=10.000. Ni sen is 2000, so I guess they combined it to Windows 2000, perfectly fitting to those old men.
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u/Disp69696969 6d ago
Thanks for the clarification! Now I know that it would be pointless to drop it in a conversation with English speakers!
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u/TatharNuar 6d ago
You could say it's like an old manager who does nothing useful but takes home $2000 per week after taxes? Math comes close at least.
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u/APladyleaningS 7d ago
Isn't it hilarious? I interpreted as outdated/obsolete/useless but still collecting that fat salary, similar to boomers in the US who won't retire.Â
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u/405freeway 7d ago edited 7d ago
Japan for centuries has relied on complacency to keep people in certain positions for the sake of power and security, both the working class and the ruling class. Honor and duty, for the sake of the people, were above things like family and self.
They've hit a point where Japanese citizens are realizing there's no point to working hard if you have no life, and the people at the bottom are being used to prop up the rest.
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u/fizzunk 7d ago
I've lived in Japan for 15 years now.
For the past 8 years I've worked as a ski instructor and get to meet all types of people who work at the resorts. Local and foreign alike.
Over the last 4 seasons I've seen an increase in 40-something japanese people who just simply gave up with the corporate/office lifestyle and have been doing seasonal work here and there until they find a new occupation.
I'm glad people are downright refusing the toxicity of japanese work culture. But it also makes me so sad regular honest hard working people can't find their footing work wise.
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u/bluesteel-one Anarchist 7d ago
We must all rebel against the corporate elites
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u/yourpersonalhuman 7d ago
And industrial oligarchs too. Both corporate and industry are harming the planet now
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u/Spiritual_Cap2637 7d ago
Long hours low pay is the defination of wage slavery at its best. Working to death is the reality in Japan. Who wants to have a family in a place like that.
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u/Ferret_Person 7d ago
I have some family in Japan. They are brutal but I think they've had some pretty significant breakthroughs in making it a little more tolerable.
Way I've heard it is it's very gaslighty. Bosses will just have you do all the work and take credit for it while also threatening your job constantly. Perhaps you've experienced it as well, but the stories I hear are a bit comically evil sometimes. Also work retreats and events are like very much not optional despite the presentation. People are incredibly judgemental and do absolutely pick favorites at these events so there's even a performance element.
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u/Patient-Squirrel2728 7d ago
Long overdue. Perhaps a decline in Japanese âBlack Companiesâ will have effects on the west?
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u/strolpol 7d ago
The reason all their anime are about high school kids is that is the last time most of them felt like they had any amount of control over their lives, so it naturally has become the complete locus of culture
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u/AntiqueTwitterMilk 7d ago
Best of luck to the Japanese people, trying to give themselves a better life. I really enjoy visiting Japan and it saddens me when I read about how hard it is for those who live they're too survive.
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u/Aggravating_Ebb_8045 7d ago
Wondering what triggered this to happen now? My impression is that Japanâs work culture has been terrible like this for many decades, according to the article itâs not just young people but also middle aged workers that have had enough. Is it just the increasing labor shortage?
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u/Hippy_Lynne 6d ago
In Japan you can hire someone to quit your job for you. Because apparently if you put in notice you'll be harassed and threatened.
I think that says all you need to know about their work culture.
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u/kevtino 7d ago
It's widely known that Japan has been overdue for a work culture revolution for quite a while. Makes me wonder, considering how much of a cultural presence the country is in the wider world, what the ramifications will be.