In a Japanese company, a handover is a formal stage of leaving, not an afterthought. The departing employee writes a handover document listing open matters, contacts, deadlines and where records are kept. They then introduce the successor to clients, suppliers and colleagues in person, often visiting key clients together, so that the relationship is seen to pass from one person to the other. For a senior executive this can cover dozens of relationships and take weeks.
The law is thinner than the custom. An employee on an open-ended contract may resign with two weeks' notice under the Civil Code. Work rules or contracts commonly ask for one to three months, and most senior people give it. There is no free-standing statutory duty to complete a handover, and an employer cannot withhold earned wages because one was incomplete. Work rules often allow the retirement allowance to be reduced or withheld for misconduct, but courts allow that only for disloyalty serious enough to cancel out the value of long service. In the Nihon Koatsu Gas Kogyo case in 1984, the Osaka High Court ordered the allowance to be paid to an employee who had resigned abruptly, without the company's approval or the notice the work rules required, and without a handover. In practice, the pressure is social rather than legal: leaving a mess behind is remembered by former colleagues and clients, and the community is small.
The handover usually runs alongside the last stretch of the notice period, before any leave the employee uses up at the end. The two compete for the same weeks, which is where timing disputes start.
What it means for a foreign employer
- Do not squeeze it. Demanding a start date that cuts a senior hire's handover short creates stress for someone who takes their obligations seriously, and can harm their standing in the network you hired them for.
- Build it into the start date. Plan for one to three months between acceptance and start for senior roles. The resignation, the handover and leave all need time.
- Stay in touch through it. The handover period is when counteroffers and second thoughts arrive. Keep regular, supportive contact until the first day.
- Ask for the same when people leave you. Set a handover expectation in your work rules and agree a plan when someone resigns.
Sources
- Civil Code, Article 627 (two weeks' notice for open-ended employment).
- Labour Standards Act, Article 24 (full payment of wages).
- Osaka High Court, Nihon Koatsu Gas Kogyo case, 29 November 1984.