Japanese firms and their employees are walking out on each other at the same time. These are not unrelated trends, but two sides of the same shift in Japan’s postwar employment system.
Profitable companies are cutting staff. Panasonic announced around 10,000 job cuts in May 2025, the same period it reported an 18 per cent rise in operating profit. Layoffs by profitable firms have become common enough in Japan to carry their own name, kuroji risutora — restructuring despite profitability.
On the other side, new recruits are walking away from jobs early, sometimes on their first day. Resignation agencies that hand in notices on behalf of workers have grown into a visible industry. One of their busiest players, Momuri, drew public attention in early 2026 when its operators were arrested for steering clients to affiliated lawyers for a fee. Demand peaks every spring following the start of the Japanese fiscal year and the mass intake of university graduates in April. In April 2026, one agency was overwhelmed by new hires, some asking it to resign for them during the lunch break on day one.
The headline numbers have barely moved. Roughly three in 10 university graduates resign from their first job within three years, a rate which has remained stable for decades. What is new is the visible machinery that has grown around leaving and the readiness of both sides to use it.
