this post was submitted on 05 May 2025
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[–] The_Caretaker@lemm.ee 91 points 17 hours ago (4 children)

Japan has strong worker protections. It is very difficult to fire an employee in Japan, without showing that the employee committed a crime. Employees can do practically nothing at work and still get paid. Call in sick as much as they want and the only penalty is not getting paid sick days once they run out of paid sick leave and vacation days. If an employer does mass layoffs, they have to show that the company is on the verge of bankruptcy and they have tried everything else, including reducing the pay of executives or removing executive positions before firing employees. Elon Musk is in hot water in Japan for mass firing Twitter employees in Japan. He violated Japanese labor laws.

[–] bstix@feddit.dk 9 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

It's a different culture altogether, where a job is expected"for life", which also makes it difficult to quit a job. People are literally hiring other people to deliver their resignation notices because it's impossible to do in person.

[–] The_Caretaker@lemm.ee 3 points 4 hours ago

No, not that I have seen. Job for life is some outdated Boomer generation shit. When people want to quit they just quit. But quitting on your own may mean no unemployment benefits. When an employer wants a worker to leave, for whatever reason, they come to ask the employee to resign and offer them some money for agreeing to quit. Usually about 3 months pay. The employee can also collect unemployment benefits for several months if the resignation is at the request of the employer. So if you want to quit, it's better to make your boss want you to leave, without committing any crimes. That way they ask you to resign. Much better than it was in the USA.

[–] demonsword@lemmy.world 6 points 8 hours ago

Japan has strong worker protections

this doesn't apply to contractors and part-time employees, AFAIK

[–] cuteness@sh.itjust.works 5 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

That was several years ago, so surely the water isn’t that hot. Have they tried bringing it to a rolling boil yet?

[–] The_Caretaker@lemm.ee 8 points 8 hours ago

As with most governments, Japan has a justice system that works slowly and methodically. Thousands of workers were not given their required notice or severance pay when they were unilaterally terminated. Twitter / Musk cannot make the case that the company was on the verge of bankruptcy and didn't even bother trying to. He just assumed because workers have no rights in the USA that he could do the same thing in Japan that he does in America. By not paying the workers their severance or giving them proper notice he opened himself up to each individual having the ability to sue him for at least a year's salary, probably more. The government can also attach additional fines and penalties because they have to dish out unemployment benefits for all of those workers because Musk broke the law. The water will boil when it boils and it won't stop.

[–] klemptor@startrek.website 4 points 8 hours ago

Ooh, 'boil the billionaires' has a nice ring to it

[–] Frog@lemmy.ca 45 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

So when the CEO of Nintendo cut his salary due to the poor sales of the Wii U and every American tech writer praised him for it, that was just common practice in Japan?

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 13 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

He voluntarily cut his salary in half. That's more along the lines of taking responsibility than shoring up the company. CEO pay is a tiny percentage of revenue, despite what lemmy thinks. To make a serious dent, pay would have to be cut across all the C suite, and much deeper.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

CEO pay is a tiny percentage of revenue, despite what lemmy thinks

It is the most obvious symptom of the problem, that's for sure, no wonder it's the most targeted

[–] prodigalsorcerer@lemmy.ca 1 points 7 hours ago

Every thread where you see "ceo of failing company gets $3M bonus" followed by "those workers could have used that" ignores the fact that there are so many employees that, divided evenly, it's never more than $5, and frequently less than a dollar.

Yes, that's technically better than nothing. And I agree the CEO doesn't deserve a bonus if their company is failing. But focusing on this is missing the bigger picture of the lack of workers' rights in America, and paints a target on the wrong people (CEOs instead of the government).

[–] The_Caretaker@lemm.ee 43 points 16 hours ago

They have to try reducing or eliminating the costs at the upper levels before trying to fire the wage slaves in Japan, so yes.