Redundancy - Anyone gone through the process in Japan?

[TokyoSurvivor]

Thanks Tkydon

I had not even started to think about that - but great that you raise it.

I'm putting together a timeline plan of everything that will happen. For example

- Last day in the office
- Gardening leave start/finish
- When retirement payment due
- When to approach Hello Work

This will be added to it. Let me know of anything else that springs to mind I should note.

Could even be a useful template for others.

Cheers

[hawkmoon99]

I'll be following this thread because I am going through something very similar. Currently on my "gardening leave".

[Kiro]

Happened to me 4 times in the last 5 companies I worked for in the past 17 years (it wasn’t me, just bad luck, I swear ^^; ) so i know about this subject.

In short, if you’re a full time employee and have done nothing wrong, basically they can’t do much.
With that said, if a company really wants to make you redundant, they can always find a way to make your life miserable. You may choose to not care, but I found out it’s always a good thing to negotiate.

I’ve never officially involved lawyers for negotiation (the company would need to do the same, and it can become ugly, long and costly), and always ended up negotiating with the bucho or HR (except when a Japan office was shut down, didn’t have much room for negotiations).
Usually asking for 3 months garden leave, 1 month per year of service, and 6-12 months of “signing within 3 days”.

So if you’re getting 24 months, it feels like a good deal.
But obviously it all depends of what you want.

What you should to reply in writing is that (maybe too late now though)
- You understand you’re not at fault, you’ve always done good work, and it is solely the company’s business decision
- that the business is not in such a dire state that it warrants you leaving (if that’s the case)
- That your wish is to stay employed (if that’s the case), and that all you want is to keep gambaru for the company, like you’ve always done and can prove
- That you accept to review what they’re sending, but you reserve yourself the right to ask them to withdraw their offer and keep you employed.

Good luck!

[TokyoSurvivor]

After weighing it all up, decided I'll go with it and take the "involuntary retirement" deal. Adding it all up works out at over 2.5 years salary.

With one door closing, another one opens. The many things that need to be taken care of when you leave employment.
Having been in one company for years there are many things I never had to worry about, but are now on the horizon (many of which mentioned previously by other on the this thread) including the following.

- Health Care Plan
- National Insurance
- State Pension
- Company Pension
- Local Taxes
- Unemployment Insurance

And that's before I even start job hunting, which I hear is not picnic!