Quiet Quitting Japanese Style
Want to quit working but can’t? Hire a resigning service agency to do it for you
In 2020 during the height of the Covid lockdowns, I was watching my favorite show on Netflix called Terrace House Tokyo 2019–2020. Episode 33, featured Toshiyuki Shinno, the president of the resigning service agency, EXIT Inc. That was the first time to learn of resigning service agencies in Japan.
(Currently not all episodes are available to watch on Netflix, including the episodes in which Mr. Shinno appeared which overlapped with Hana Kimura, who committed suicide due to cyberbullying.)
It may be only in Japan where there are resigning service agencies. You might wonder why you can’t quit a company yourself even though you want to. Why do you need such a company to leave your job?
According to those agencies, their customers said:
- "I want to quit the company but my boss is insisting not to.”
- “The company I work for threatened to sue me for damages caused by my quitting.”
- “I want to quit now but I was told that I can’t leave the company until they find a replacement. I should be responsible for training the new person to understand the job and need some transition time.”
- “I am not being paid for overtime and the work environment is so bad that I wanted to quit but they insisted that I can’t quit for a month.”
I guess these services have been around for more than 10 years and were handled by lawyers, but became well-known during covid.
A foreign media requested me to do an interview with a resigning service agency including answering questions and letting us film their clients but they all rejected cooperating with us to protect their client’s privacy.
The service fee isn’t high — it ranges from 25,000 yen to 50,000 yen (about $165 to $330). You only need to provide your name, birthday, address, employment type (regular employee or contractor), how many years you worked for the company, contract period, employee ID, and date you wish to quit. Of course, the agency will also need to know the company name, address, phone number, and department where you work. If you want to use your remaining paid vacation time, want to your belongings returned, or need rishokuhyo (離職票) documents for unemployment insurance, that needs to be included as well.
Details to include in the resignation notice:
- Date and time send letter of resignation
- Reason for resignation
- Effective date of resignation
- Whether or not the company has loaned you any items
- Documents to be issued
- Whether or not personal belongings are to be returned or disposed of
- Paid leave and severance package
I am sure people tried to tell the company that they want to quit but failed, so that’s why they are using the agency.
The benefit of using the agency is, if you do not want to communicate directly with your boss, human resources department, colleagues, or other company personnel, the resignation agency service handles all correspondence on your behalf, so you do not need to communicate directly with anyone at the company.
Even if the employment contract state that “one month’s notice of resignation is required,” employment law takes precedence over company rules and labor contract. Any employee can resign within two weeks from a resignation request, based on Article 627 of the Civil Code.
Interestingly, when I was talking to my friend about this resignation agency, she told me that she faced this situation just the previous week. She works in the HR department at a Japanese company and was contacted by a lawyer from a resigning agency and was not allowed to contact the employee afterward.
Maybe agencies to help you quit your job aren’t needed overseas, but in Japan to avoid situations like what happened recently at Toyota where an employee committed suicide after being bullied by his boss, it’s much better to just pay 30,000 yen and quit. The stress will be off your shoulders. (Just make sure to pick the right agency with a lawyer.)
Life is too short to struggle in the workplace. Be happier. For 30,000 yen, you can be free.
