Because dismissing a regular employee is so hard in Japan, some employers have tried to make staying unattractive instead. The employee, usually someone who has declined voluntary early retirement, is moved to a new unit with a name like career development centre or business support office. There they are given menial tasks, asked to find their own work inside or outside the company, or given nothing to do at all. The aim is that they will eventually decide to leave.
The term spread in 2013 after reporting by the Asahi Shimbun on units at several large electronics makers during a period of heavy restructuring. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare responded by interviewing a number of the companies named. Similar allegations have surfaced since, including in 2024 reporting on the games industry.
The legal position is not that such a unit is automatically unlawful. Employers may reassign staff and encourage voluntary retirement. It becomes unlawful when the reassignment has no genuine business purpose, when it is designed to force resignation, or when the treatment amounts to power harassment. Ministry guidelines list deliberately giving too little or meaningless work and isolating an employee as typical forms of power harassment. Persistent pressure to resign was also held unlawful by the Supreme Court as early as 1980, in the Shimonoseki Commercial High School case.
What it means for a foreign employer
- Do not import the tactic. Sidelining an employee to force them out invites a power harassment complaint, a union approach and a damages claim, and it rarely works.
- Separation by agreement is the legitimate route. A clear offer, a fair package and a reasonable time to decide is what courts and inspectors expect.
- It explains some candidates. Mid-career candidates in their 50s sometimes come from restructuring units like these. The context matters more than the title on the CV.
- Watch reputational spill-over. Allegations attach to the employer brand and affect hiring for years.
Sources
- Supreme Court, Shimonoseki Commercial High School case, 10 July 1980.
- Comprehensive Labour Policy Promotion Act, Article 30-2, and Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare power harassment guidelines (2020).
- Asahi Shimbun reporting, 2013; Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare interviews with companies, 2013.