Japanese workers turn to resignation agencies

This definitely exists, even when switching jobs.

However I would say that IMO it's another case of foreigners buzzing by depicting boring and common stuff under a "weird Japan" light.

Shitty companies manipulating employees to stop them from resigning is something that exists in any country. And this escalating to the labor authorities or going through a lawyer is not a rare thing anywhere either.

It happens more frequently in Japan because the culture of not being confrontational is strong. The fact that lawyers can afford to specialize in this matter alone is just a logical result of the larger number of customers.

EDIT: I also want to add this: if you have been in a company for a while, you are eventually going to see or hear about how resignation is handled for other employees. If you want to quit and already know that the company is going to harrass you and make your life hell, is it so weird to save your time and mental health to delegate all of that to a dedicated professional?

> Shitty companies manipulating employees to stop them from resigning is something that exists in any country.

I have never heard of it in the US. I’m sure some examples exist but I’d be really unpleasantly surprised if it’s a major social issue here.

Does it? You hear stories in the US of people trying to manipulate employees into not quitting or lambasting them for leaving, but trying to actually, seriously deny their ability to quit is nearly unheard of.

Amen.

IMO, it's an tortured example of Hanlons Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

I see tons of shitty stuff roll downwards to employees in US companies, but I never see the kind of competence at the upper levels to pull off the kind of manipulation implied here. It's just negligence, ignorance, and dysfunctionality that tends to screw us yanks at the bottom.

> Shitty companies manipulating employees to stop them from resigning is something that exists in any country. And this escalating to the labor authorities or going through a lawyer is not a rare thing anywhere either.

It is? In what other countries are we talking about here where a company escalates to the labor authorities to prevent you from quitting? Usually this kind of thing is reserved to harass visa holders, not native workers.

They would absolutely do that if contracts would be stronger. But as they want to keep their ease of firing and laying off people, contracts are weak in both direction.

I don't recall seeing examples in the US of directly preventing someone from resigning. But I have read about situations where companies make it harder to get the next job, essentially forcing someone to stay in a bad work situation. For example, non-competes for service jobs (fast-food, hairdressers, etc.)

I mean that the employees escalates it, not the companies.

For agricultural workers it is quite common with 'we safekeep your passport for you' and similar schemes.

I think foreign workers are more exploited in general but outside of the cities it is way harder to escape such employers.

And what do you think a broad non-compete clause is? The goal is the same, just the means are different.

Does a non-compete prevent you from leaving your current employer?

> And what do you think a broad non-compete clause is?

Pretty universally illegal. California doesn't have noncompete clauses at all. Texas, the state I'm most familiar with, doesn't allow them to be enforced except for skills that are proprietary to an employer, .e.g., supporting specific software in a specific way or something. Pretty sure most states that have them are the same. Making burgers isn't going to do it, and nobody would sue you over it anyway, they'd sue the new employer whose lawyers will know better.

I have had an employer try to get me to sign an illegal noncompete before, but that was because it was a small employer who didn't know the law. When I quit I politely informed him that it was unenforceable. He didn't try. That doesn't mean employers who know better don't try to intimidate employees, but they could just as easily threaten to break your kneecaps. Probably they won't.

So is this practice in Japan, but it happens there just as overly broad non-competes happen in the west. And probably in both cases if you are a well informed person in a position with decent labour demand you can deal with that sort of a problem without much trouble yourself. But if you are in a much weaker position, then having some form of outside assistance available is invaluable.