Employees have been living in a work-first culture where leaving the office on time or taking a day off is out of the question.
Excessive workload, low compensation, and bad managers—these are just some of the many reasons one may want to quit their job. But, admit it, handing in your notice is still not easy, especially if you know that it can end up in the shredder.
It has been a constant dilemma, particularly for Japanese workers who are stuck in a work culture where leaving the office on time, taking a day off, or resigning is out of the question. That is why, in recent years, many Japanese employees have turned to resignation agencies to help them leave their jobs without stress.
Companies offering proxy resignations are much in demand for Japanese employees who can’t tender their resignations by themselves. They avail of the service for a variety of reasons, largely because of horrible bosses. Among the companies serving thousands of clients yearly are Exit and its competitor Albatross which runs the Tokyo-based agency Momuri.
These agencies existed before the COVID-19 pandemic, with Exit being the pioneer when it was launched in 2017. But it was only during the pandemic that their popularity grew as Japanese employees were compelled to reflect on their careers while in isolation.
Momuri was meanwhile launched by Albatross in 2022, during the decline of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its name, which means “I can’t do this anymore” in Japanese, reflects its clientele’s helpless plea. Momuri and the other resignation agencies—estimated at 100 to date—would usually answer to their clientele’s needs by negotiating with their employers and seeking the recommendation of lawyers if legal disputes arise.
Shinji Tanimoto, the head of Albatross, elaborated on this in an interview with The Guardian: “We submit resignations on behalf of people who, for whatever reason, can’t do it themselves. Sometimes, it’s just natural reluctance, but some might have experienced harassment or even violence from their employers. They are at their wits’ end when they come to us.”
“Some people come to us after having their resignation later ripped three times and employers not letting them quit even when they kneel down to the ground to bow,” Shiori Kawamata, operations manager of Momuri, meanwhile told CNN. “We sometimes get calls from people crying, asking us if they can quit their job based on XYZ. We tell that that it is okay, and that quitting their job is a labor right.”
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Kawamata added that some were harassed by their bosses, including dashing to their apartment, ringing the doorbell repeatedly, and refusing to leave. There was also one who got the shock of his life when their boss dragged them to the Onmyoji temple in Kyoto “because they were cursed.”
The agencies’ services come with a fee ranging from 12,000 yen (P5,000) to as much as 50,000 yen (P20,000). Kawamata said that Momuri’s clients come from small to medium-sized businesses, mostly in the food and healthcare industries. They have so far received 350,000 online consultations and helped 20,000 people quit their jobs.
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Culture of extreme overwork
Japan’s culture of extreme overwork transpired after World War II when the country’s economy was in ruins. As a solution, Japan established a work-first culture that, according to the World Economic Forum, glorified the idea of sacrificing one’s personal life for the country.
This resulted in rapid economic growth, which propelled Japan to second global economic power next to the US in the 1980s. Japan’s economy flourished from 1945 to 1991, in a period called the “Japanese Economic Miracle.” However, it also posed a grave threat to national health which persisted for decades.
Today, many employees across various sectors in Japan continue to report punishing hours, high pressure from supervisors, and forced submission to company policies. These employers, according to World Economic Forum, are listed as ‘black firms” and are prohibited by the government from hiring workers. More than 370 of these companies have been blacklisted by Japan’s labor bureau since the list was first published in 2017.
Despite that, chronic stress is still prevalent in Japanese companies to this day. According to a recent study reported by the World Economic Forum, around one in 10 Japanese employees work more than 80 hours of overtime per month. One in five of these employees is at risk of karoshi or “death by overwork” through stroke, heart attack, or stress-induced suicide.
Meanwhile, Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare recorded 54 people dying from work-induced brain and heart conditions in 2022. 2,683 meanwhile filed claims over mental stress at work. Among the several alarming cases is that of a 31-year-old broadcaster who died in 2017 after tendering 159 hours of overtime in a single month. Five years later, in 2022, a 26-year-old doctor from a hospital in Kobe died by suicide after working more than 200 hours of overtime in a month.
Hisakazu Kato, an economics professor at Meiji University, told CNN that the country has labor laws that intend to protect workers and ensure that they can resign from any employer. “But sometimes, the atmosphere in the workplace makes it difficult to say so,” he emphasized.
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