Japan Times Interviews Heath Havey at Japan Employment Solutions
In June 2024, the Japan Times interviewed Heath Havey at Japan Employment Solutions KK about the phenomenon of quiet quitting. Read the full article here:
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2024/06/12/japan-quiet-quitters/
THE FULL INTERVIEW CAN BE FOUND BELOW:
> How pronounced is ‘quiet quitting’ in Japan – and is this a new trend?
It has been around since at least the 1990s, but it has been increasing since the Pandemic. Thirty years ago, the discussions were about switching from full time work to part time and contract work. This trend expanded to holding onto their jobs while avoiding the overwork and doing the bare minimum for many who do not see their jobs resulting in any recognition, promotion, or personal satisfaction. I would say this trend is part of the impetus that pushed the “Work Style Reform Laws” of the Abe administration about 10 years ago.
> I’ve heard anecdotally that it’s quite difficult to fire people in Japan due to employment protections – is this the case, and how might this feed into how employees view their careers/relationships with employers?
They know (if they are seishain) that they can dig their heels in and employers cannot do anything about it other than offer them large sums of money to leave. Japan work styles had always contemplated most people working hard to be productive for the team. But the new generation is changing that. Meanwhile, the law has not changed, giving them more leverage and forcing employers to become much more creative when employees aren’t pulling their own weight.
> In terms of improving employee motivation, what do you think is likely to have the biggest impact (highly engaged, experienced managers/flexible working conditions etc.)?
When expectations are that you go the extra mile without expecting anything in return, the change that needs to happen is for employees to be rewarded—both verbally and financially—for doing more than the basic job. Work style in Japan has typically focused on pointing out the negative and simply expecting the highest level of output without praising it. This is what needs to flip. The horenso concept needs to be replaced with the kaizen philosophy that companies like Toyota put into place.
> Any additional thoughts?
Japanese employment is deeply embedded with loyalty and social order derived from Confucianism. From the legal perspective, this means that employers cannot terminate employment easily. There is no “at will” employment like that in Western societies. The idea of “lifetime employment” is ingrained in every “regular employee” (called “seishain”). In past generations, this was a reciprocal commitment from the employee to remain loyal and work hard for the company. But in the last 20 to 30 years, the new generation has developed a certain malaise and lack of fulfillment with the traditional model. Being a “cog in the machine” of their employer is no longer satisfaction. And thus, what we call “quiet quitting” has been an increasing trend in Japan over 30 years. COVID and work-from-home only exacerbated this discontent, as it came directly at odds with the “horenso” style employment embedded in the lifetime employment model.
(Horenso is a type of acronym meaning report, communicate, and consult. It is a less efficient and more bureaucratic model, and often led to the idea that they should be “seen” at the office by their boss. This resulted in long hours, drinking together after work, and so forth that is a common conceptualization/stereotype of the Japanese. Lawsuits arose during COVID when some employees had more access/visibility to their boss than others and claimed they were being discriminated against.)
For decades, Japan has ranked very high on the hours per day worked, but very low on the productivity per hour scale. The new generation wants more and realizes there is more to life than work. The Abe administration also recognized this and passed the “Work Style Reform Laws” that went into effect over several years up until 2020, including strictly enforcing overtime, requiring equal pay for “non-regular” workers, requiring employers to force employees to take vacations, and so forth. This is not a temporary speedbump. This is transformative of societal values.
Thus, while discontent and what might be called a silent generational protest pushed quiet quitting from one direction, practical considerations cemented it in place from another direction. In Japan, the job market tends to be static. Without the liquidity of moving from job to job often during a career, attractive job openings may be few and far between. Employees also face a societal stigma for being jobless for any length of time—for any reason. Thus, termination is highly regulated and resignation is difficult to consider. Quiet quitting is just that—quiet—and thus avoids drawing attention to oneself and puts the onus on the employer to take action. And the employer often does not have legal recourse to take action other than reassignment, which may then also put the employees in a job they like better with a supervisor or coworkers they get along with better.
Quiet quitting also avoids disrupting the social order per the Japanese saying, “The nail that sticks out gets hammered in.” (“Deru kugi wa utareru.”) So Japanese employees unhappy with their jobs but knowing the job market is tough will “phone it in,” as they say, by doing the bare minimum, knowing (1) there will be no consequence, (2) it will allow them to focus on self-care and passions, and (3) there is typically no extra incentive to work hard and do well, as the system is generally not merit based. (Toyota dealt with this in years back with the concept of “kaizen” (continuous improvement, including personal and professional growth).)
Other forces also push the so-called “quiet quitting” among the Japanese. Bosses may take actions like (1) insisting that employees may not resign (with implicit meaning that the employees may have their job searches thwarted), (2) the employer threatening to sue if an employee quits, (3) demanding that the employee wait until a replacement is found, or (4) requiring the employees provide the requisite 30 day notice of resignation (which in the past was not typically enforced). “Job quitting” services were even developed to help employees quit. All of these forces are coupled with the fact that the Japanese are generally not paid as much as their counterparts overseas.
To employees, quiet quitting seems preferrable to these hardships, and the employee, who has all the legal leverage to prevent termination, holds the leverage. Even if things get out of control, Japanese employees know they can join a union to represent their interests. (No union elections or other procedures are necessary, as a union can represent even one individual in a company like a lawyer, and administrative agencies may initiate comprehensive employment audits.) Companies are wary (even afraid) of the “name and shame” game of the unions, which will also then seek other union members and wage a PR campaign against the company, making it difficult to attract talent and find customers. Japanese employees also know that their work is more valuable now due to the shrinking demographics and aging out of many in the workforce.
They want to have lives outside work. The new Japanese worker model defies previous expectations and is an evolutionary step in their work life models, supported all the way to the top of government—even up to criminal actions against some employers for overworking employees. Quiet quitting is a way for those trapped to get what they can out of a difficult situation while avoiding the anxiety, stigma, and risk associated with being jobless. It also gives them a manageable solution to the otherwise fierce competition for the small number of managerial roles they would otherwise be forced to fight for. The seniority system demotivates them and strips them of ambition. If their performance will not matter for promotions and raises, they think, then why go the extra mile and sacrifice a better personal life? Personal growth is replacing professional growth as the ideal.
All of these competing forces make “quiet quitting” in Japan not only understandable, but also inevitable. The only real question is: Why didn’t it happen sooner?
Further, the inverse of this, “quiet firing,” is also prevalent in Japan. It involves employers using methods to get rid of employees they could not otherwise fire, such as shutting down offices, hiring them on temporary contracts that expire, and so forth. This is part of the reasoning behind passage of the “Equal Pay Act” that went into effect in 2020 and Abe’s Work Style Reform laws.
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