Hi Everyone,
Recently I got an offer from an American company’s Tokyo office(in IT field), and I will be moving to Japan this Nov. As you might be aware, the global economy is a recession and I really want to think about the worst case scenario before making such a big decision.
Does anyone know what the layoff process is like in Japan for foreign companies? Do they have to obey the same layoff rule as other Japanese companies? What will happen if they have to layoff many employees?
3 comments
I work for an American company’s Tokyo office. Assuming it’s similar – an actual Japanese legal entity that is employing you – the employment terms are all structured like any other Japanese company (just that a lot of the stuff is also translated into English). This includes stuff like benefits, time off, working hours etc. For example in the US salaried employees don’t get overtime. Here in Japan technically I’m entitled to overtime pay if I hit a certain number of hours and/or are forced to work in late evenings/weekends because of Japanese law. On the other hand, vacation policy was a lot better in the US (unlimited vacation – in practice 5-6 weeks a year – vs. here in Japan it’s 18 days a year). And the same thing applies for layoffs, in the US I was an at will employee who could be fired at any time. Here the company has to follow Japanese labor laws when it comes to laying off employees.
As a worker in Japan, you are protected by Japanese labour laws the same as any other worker.
The basic details are here: https://www.jetro.go.jp/usa/resignation-and-dismissal.html
[deleted]