Hello everyone. I was asked to make a final update from many people during the last couple of posts. This will probably be the last update as I will be leaving the country soon.
First off: as many of you suggested I ended up going to the labour office. The person I spoke to was relatively old and when I explained my situation his response was pretty much non existent. All he could tell me from everything I showed him is that I’m protected, they can’t decide when you’re terminated unless you both agree on a date. So the employee has the last say there. If anyone else here gets into similar stuff, make sure to take screenshots and save everything you have. Also consult a lawyer if you can. I’m guessing since I’ve already quit they mightve had a much milder response than if I was still working there. They didn’t bat an eye either when I told them I didn’t recieve any payslips.
Second: My taxes. I went to the local tax office. Unfortunately they were not much help either. They couldn’t tell me if any of my taxes were paid or not. After telling them that the employer hadn’t paid taxes for other things I got yet another lukewarm response of そうですか or something to that affect. I mentioned to them that I don’t know if I’ll recieve my 源泉徴収票 either and they said “your company must give you one, that’s not an option”. Turns out there is a form you can fill out (a member of r/JapanFinance was kind enough to share it with me) which you can use to get your 源泉徴収票 from your employer if they haven’t issued it within 1 month of your departure.
I spoke to a company here regarding the tax issue and showed them my proof and they’ve assured me I’m safe from any responsibilities. If at all there is a problem I might have to contact them again when I’m back home.
Unfortunately it doesn’t look like I could do much to put this employer in their place. It seems as though the labour office and tax offices didn’t seem to care a whole lot since I had already quit.
Thank you once again to everyone who helped, consoled and was generally very supportive during a difficult time. I’m definitely sad that nothing could really be done but at the same time I feel like I’ve aged a solid 10 years in the past 6-8 months from the stress alone. As I mentioned at the top, I will be leaving japan before the new year to spend time with my friends and family back home and try to figure out what the next step in my life is. I really do love japan as a country and would like to live here again some day but for now I think it’s best for me to cut my losses and recover.
I hope everyone here will continue having a good time in japan, I’ll be lurking on the sub from time to time to reminisce about my short time here.
Also for anyone asking for the company name, I spoke to a lawyer and they strongly advised me to not give the name out on a public platform such as reddit. To all job seekers, just be vary of small companies who boast being international, have no overtime, things like that. I was desperate to come to japan when I first took this job but something felt off right from day one but I didn’t trust my gut back then. Make sure to trust yours.
Thanks again!