＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
I have heard that after the 10-day holiday weekend in May this year, the resignation agency service EXIT saw a surge in requests for representation. More recently, I have also heard of a surge in usage before the summer vacations and a rush of reservations after the summer vacations. Retirement agency services are a service that has become commonly used since 2018.
The reason for the sharp increase is that “people who work for companies that are short on staff and want to quit the company because of ‘low wages’ or ‘long working hours,’ but find it difficult to say so because the company will hold them back.
１．Companies with labor shortages
Not only small and medium-sized companies, but also major companies in the nursing care/nursing industry, transportation, construction, telecommunications/information service, and sales/restaurant industries are seriously short of labor, and even a slight shortage in the current workforce would hinder their business operations.
For such companies, it is not surprising that after several years of training, when they finally feel that they have become a workforce, “I’m quitting” is a “terrible” thing to say.
Some of them will persistently keep you, saying, “We spent a lot of money to educate you and bring you up to this level, and if you quit now, we will lose money. If you quit now, we will claim compensation.
Some people have been mentally trapped because they were not allowed to leave the company.
It is said that recently, more consultations at labor bureaus nationwide are related to “resignation” than to “dismissal.
Unlike when we baby boomers were active salaried workers, the hurdle to “changing jobs” seems to be much lower now that the “lifetime employment system” is on the verge of collapse.
２．Overstaffed firms
On the other hand, I believe that many companies with a large number of office salaried workers are overstaffed with permanent employees, even though they have been merging and restructuring due to industry restructuring.
In such companies, if there are “applicants for retirement,” they should welcome them with a “please go ahead and retire” welcome.
However, I believe that some companies are facing the problem that their staffing structure has become distorted, and mid-level and veteran employees are stretched thin.
３．Problems with Resignation Agency Services
Resignation agency services are provided by private companies such as “EXIT,” “SARABA,” and “Yamerundesu” Some law firms have started this service.
(1) Legal status of resignation
In the case of an employment contract with no fixed term, “the approval of the company is not required for resignation. According to Article 627, Paragraph 1 of the Civil Code (*), the employee is free to resign from the company within two weeks of the offer of resignation.
(*) If the parties have not stipulated the term of employment, each party may make a request for termination at any time. In this case, employment shall terminate upon the expiration of two weeks from the date of the offer of termination.
(2) Private firms providing resignation services may violate the Lawyers Act.
The Lawyers Act prohibits non-lawyers from engaging in legal negotiations as “non-lawyer conduct. It has been pointed out that some resignation agency service providers may be in violation of the Lawyers Act.
Toshiyuki Niino, co-chairman of “EXIT,” said, “What we do is to serve as an intermediary for communication regarding resignation. We call them and say, ‘Please confirm that the resignation notice has been sent by the person in question. We have determined that this way of doing business does not constitute non-lawyer conduct, and we are now conducting our business.
If that’s all you do, I don’t think it’s much different than just mailing the resignation letter in person. If you think it is necessary to contact the company, I think you can ask a family member or friend to do it for you. Why go to the trouble of asking a “resignation agency” to do it for you?
If your resignation letter is destroyed or refused to be received even after you mail it by “content-certified mail,” you should consult with the “Labor Standards Inspection Office.
As for black companies that engage in such malicious retention, it is out of the hands of “resignation agents”. It is better to consult with the “Labor Standards Inspection Office,” a public institution, before consulting a lawyer.
