The Great Japan Resignation
“Take this job and shove it”, sang George Jones.
While that phrase may be on the minds of many, and maybe even uttered during “The Great Resignation”, it’s unlikely those exact words will be used by Japanese employees.
Resignations in Japan are usually done in a serene manner and employers are, for the most part, given a one month notice by resigning employees; at least employees who have been with the company a while and who are not within their initial three-months probationary period.
Since the start of the Covid Pandemic well over 40 million people in the USA resigned from their jobs in 2021. Data organized by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s 38 member countries indicates that there about 20 million fewer people working as compared to pre-Covid days.
On a recent trip to California, we were turned away a couple of times by apologetic restaurant managers who had to close off many of their seats due to a lack of workers. My personal observation of stores showed that nearly 95% of the shops had help wanted signs in their windows. One major department store even had a sign by their escalator saying, “Apply today and start work immediately.” The California minimum wage of $14 does nothing to draw employees and restaurants were advertising $18 to $20 per hour, which still did not bring in applicants.
Here in Japan, where the labor market has been very tight for the last several years, things are probably going to get a lot tighter. If you are an employer in Japan should you be worried? If the information in an article in today’s Japan Times is any indication, employers definitely should be.
Yuka Fujimura, who was interviewed for the article was quoted, saying, “My daughter wasn’t happy at all. She became frustrated and cried a lot, begging me to take her to the park. But I had so much work to handle and no one to cover for me at my company. My friends in similar situations began leaving their jobs for the sake of their children. That’s when it dawned on me that it would be better if I left my organization and pursued an independent path.” And that is exactly what she did when she resigned from the company and started her own PR Consultancy. She has doubled her income and now has the freedom to manage her schedule to meet her and her family’s need.
According to Japan’s Communications Ministry, only a bit over 4% of Japan’s working population changed jobs in 2021. But as the economy rebounds the numbers will grow. According to research done by Takuya Hoshino, an economist at the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, those who want to change their jobs is approaching 8.5 million people, an increase of over 2.5% compared to 2020. In a country where the unemployment rate is only about 2.8% that’s a pretty significant increase.
As recruiters one of the questions from candidates that we never heard in the past is now a very common query: “How often do I have to go to the office?” From my own ‘back of the envelope’ survey this question is asked by more women than men, but the difference is not so large. Working From Home, more commonly called Remote Work here in Japan is the new normal. Riding a crowded train for and hour or more, which is quite usual, is not something employees desire now that they’ve gotten used to their new work life.
Clearly, not all jobs can be done from the comfort of one’s home. Not all homes have the luxury of a separate space for employees to work. Not all employees want to work from home. But as another former corporate employee states in the article, “Now I’m doing what I want to do, according to my own schedule. There’s so much more freedom.”
