PHOTO: Scanpix

Over the past few years, a number of agencies offering quitting services have sprung up in Japan, allowing people to outsource that uncomfortable and stressful conversation with their boss. Shyness and non-confrontational personalities are commonplace in Japanese society, and naturally enough there's proving to be a large market for the service.

Japan’s intense work culture

Japanese work culture is notoriously intense, with a sense of honour and duty historically attached to working long hours and overtime, without necessarily being financially rewarded for the extra shifts put in. These high demands take their toll on employees and can lead to resentment, burnout, and most of all, a desire to quit.

The need for quitting agencies

However, quitting is a daunting task for many, who feel a sense of guilt for the disruption they will cause, or fear being talked out of the move by their boss. This is where agencies like Exit step in. Exit was co-founded by Toshiyuki Niino after he experienced the difficulty of quitting first-hand. He felt too scared to tell his employers what he really thought, and told the WSJ that “Japanese are not educated to debate and express opinions.” Exit now handles over 10,000 cases a year, and they offer a 50% discount for repeat clients, keen to hold on to them as competitor agencies vie for their custom.

How quitting agencies work

Ayumi Sekine works at one of those competitors, Albatross. She quit her previous job at a gas company, feeling she wasn’t being compensated in line with her high performance. Her boss only accepted her resignation after she broke down in tears, following three weeks of meetings where managers attempted to block her from leaving.

She now calls companies on behalf of her clients and breaks the news to them. She gives her client’s departure date, negotiates the use of remaining holidays and the return of company property. She then instructs the company not to contact her client anymore. Most of the time, they accept the resignation, though about 10% of cases require the agency to bring in a lawyer, which of course raises the cost of the service.

How companies can retain employees

Quitting agencies are enjoying so much success that some managers are even turning to them as they look to fill the vacancies created by them. Kaoru Yoshida, a Tokyo staffing-agency manager, has lost about ten employees via resignation agencies, yet has been able to source some replacements by contacting the agencies to enquire about the profiles of their recent clients.

Shinji Tanimoto, chief executive of Albatross, has also received requests for advice on worker retention by multiple company managers. His response is simple. People quit because of overbearing bosses, unpaid overtime, and not being allowed to freely use their vacation time.

If companies were to listen to Tanimoto, his own business may start to suffer, although it doesn’t seem like that will happen any time soon.

- With the help from Patrick Conroy ir Silvija Aksiutinaitė

Japan’s aging population and labour shortage

Unemployment is low in Japan at just 2.7%, and so are the country’s birth rates, resulting in an aging population. These factors have led to a labour shortage, which in turn is the primary source of business troubles in the country. In the fiscal year ending in March this year, a record 313 Japanese companies went bankrupt.

Wages finally began to outpace inflation this year, but many Japanese companies are unable or unwilling to pay salaries necessary to retain employees. A generation gap sees older bosses expecting absolute loyalty from their employees, regardless of salaries, but they are finding out that times have changed.

in 2025 The number of people over the age of 75 in Japan will reach nearly 22 million, up from 17 million a decade ago.

PHOTO: Depositphotos

Labor force participation, % of the population of the same age group, aged 25-64 in 2022

SOURCE: OECD

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