Hello! I was wondering if anyone had any advice or experience regarding quitting in the middle of a contract specifically for Eikaiwa. I currently have an offer to work with an actual school at the start of the academic year 2024, but my contract with my current company isn’t up until July, so I’d be cutting it 3 months short.
Are there legal repercussions I could face or anything of the sort? What would the visa or tax situation look like? Should I just cancel the offer and work through the rest of my contract? I’d appreciate any thoughts if you’ve been through this.
My company (big name brand mainly in Tokyo that uses the founder’s name as the company name) states that there must be a notice of at least 2 months before quitting but this applies to people who have already completed a first year contract and are on their second year contract or above.
Any advice is welcome.
Thanks!
7 comments
I’d imagine you may be subject to penalty fees if they have that stipulation in your contract, but if you can foot the bill you are well within your rights to leave if you choose to. If you stay at an apartment they own you will also be subjected to fees, or so I’ve heard.
If youre on an instructors visa you will have to notify immigration when you’ve quit/changed over to your new position.
I quit eikaiwa before the end of the yearly contract, I gave them the one month notice as written in my contract and no issues. My new company asked me for the tax document from my old company who provided it via email and I had no issues.
If you’re working at eikaiwa you probably have a specialist in humanities visa, however actual schools usually require an instructor visa, so you’ll need your new job to give you the paperwork to take to immigration to change visa. I did it the opposite way and it just needs a bit more paper, no worries
Legal requirement is two weeks notice. Companies cannot legally enforce longer durations and any contract clauses which state so are legally null and void if put to a lawyer. Go to Hello Work if in doubt
I was on my third contract with a company and gave one month notice. My contract said three. They didn’t do shit about it because they know that it’s just two weeks notice that’s required. It’s scary to face a company that’s trying to scare you into giving that much notice, but they do it because they know that two weeks is the requirement after your first contract. Hope this helps.
If you’re in the first year of a contract, you’re supposed to follow the resignation notice stipulated in the contract as long as it’s not excessive. Two months’ notice would most likely not be considered excessive. If you’re on your second contract, two weeks’ notice is all that’s required.
If they want to charge you any penalties or damages, they have to take you to court to do so, which they aren’t going to do. They can not deduct penalties or damages from your pay.
Your visa is yours and they have no power to revoke it, but you will most likely have to change your visa status if you will be working in a regular school.
Any threats of retribution from your company are empty and have very little to no chance of being legally enforceable.
I just wanted to ask a similar question, but maybe more generally:
For first-time ESL teachers in Japan, one of my friends is looking for a shorter-term contract, the main ones I saw were with Gaba (6 months) and Westgate, for a single Uni semester. But for a more common year-long contract, let’s say after 4 months he wanted to leave (and not stay in Japan longer.) Is there reprecussions for him leaving? I assume it does vary from job to job, but I’m still researching.
Thanks, and good luck to OP in your next job!
I think if you want to quit, you should. Getting a good offer can benefit you in the long term! But there are many possible things that could happen. Let me tell you my experience, if you want to read it, please do, maybe it can give some insight in some things that could happen.
My old Eikaiwa had 3 months notice in their contract. I did a lot of research and it said that, in an open end contract, there is only need for 2 weeks notice to be given. When I quit they threatened me with legal repercussions. I called the labor office. They were only semi helpful. What I learned from them was, that on one hand, the moment I gave my notice they could not in any way force me to work beyond that. But also they had 3 months in their contract. I asked the labor office several times if that would even be legal as the law I read said 2 weeks for open ended contracts. They never gave me a straight answer.
Anyway, they filed a lawsuit against me for the money they “lost out on” for me quitting early. I got a lawyer. During this entire process, there was never any talk of it being unreasonable to ask for 3 months notice. I thought if the law said 2 weeks, then all this should be thrown out in court. It wasn’t. The only reason I was able to get out of it in the end, was that they also filed some bogus claims and power harassed me by trying to (and succeeding) to make a stink at my new work place. So I counter sued them, at which point the judge asked if we could just let it go so nobody would need to pay anything. Still lost the legal fees, of course.
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SO, TL;DR my advice would be this:
If you quit, don’t say anything else. Quit, and let that be it. Don’t tell them where you are going, what you are doing, what your plans are. Nothing. If they come after you, lawyer up. Because all the “law” people are going to cite to you here isn’t gonna mean anything if the court doesn’t seem to care about it.