Japan’s job-leaving agents help worn-out workers escape bullying ‘mini-Hitler’ bosses: ‘quitting would be a betrayal’

Japanese workers have the right to quit, but some old-style employers just can’t accept that someone they have trained would want to walk away

Dozens of ‘taishoku daiko’ have sprang up in response, helping workers – many of whom are women – escape less painfully from jobs they want to quit

Reading Time:4 minutes

Commuters walk through Shinagawa Station in Tokyo. Many Japanese worry about being seen as troublemakers, are reluctant to question authority and may be afraid to speak up. Photo: AP

Published: 3:31pm, 3 Jul 2023Updated: 3:34pm, 3 Jul 2023

In Japan, a nation reputed for loyalty to companies and lifetime employment, people who job-hop are often viewed as quitters. And that’s considered shameful.

Enter taishoku daiko, or “job-leaving agents”. Dozens of such services have sprang up in recent years to help people who simply want out.

“Imagine a messy divorce,” said Yoshihito Hasegawa, head of Tokyo-based TRK, whose Guardian service last year advised 13,000 people on how to resign from their jobs with minimal hassle.

People often stick with jobs even when they’re unhappy, feeling as if they are “kamikaze” sacrificing their lives for the greater good, he said, comparing his clients to pilots sent on suicide missions in the closing days of World War II.

Yoshihito Hasegawa, who heads Tokyo-based TRK, draws a diagram to explain his company’s “taishoku daiko” Guardian service at his office in Tokyo. Photo: AP

“It’s the way things are done, the same way younger people are taught to honour older people,” he said. “Quitting would be a betrayal.”