Layoffs at a Foreign Company in Japan: Your Rights

If your global HQ announces layoffs and your Japan manager asks you to resign, you can say no. In Japan, a request to leave is a request. The script many people expect from headquarters, where your role is gone and today is your last day, mostly does not work here.

I have spent most of my career on the HR side of the table, so I understand the pressure on the Japan entity. HQ sets a number. The local team has to deliver it under Japanese law. Trouble usually starts when the HQ playbook arrives unchanged and employees assume it is how things work everywhere. This post is the map I would want if I were sitting on the other side.

Can you refuse a request to resign?

Yes. What Japanese law calls taishoku kansho (退職勧奨) is the company proposing that you leave by agreement. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare explains it in its labor Q&A as an offer to end the contract. Accepting is up to you. If you decline, your contract continues.

Asking is not illegal in itself. It becomes unlawful when the pressure stops you from deciding freely.

The leading case is the Shimonoseki Commercial High School decision of Japan's Supreme Court (July 10, 1980). A teacher said clearly that he would not resign. The employer kept calling him into long sessions over a short period, and the court found it unlawful. The ministry's case summary puts it at about 11 sessions in three months.

The other side matters too. In the IBM Japan case (Tokyo District Court, December 28, 2011), the company kept holding meetings after employees resisted, while offering a generous exit package and outplacement support. On those facts, the court said that stayed within socially acceptable limits and dismissed the employees' claims. It was a fact-specific ruling, but it shows that one refusal does not legally end the conversation.

So the practical move is simple. Say it plainly: "I don't intend to resign." Then write down, the same day, the date, who was there and what was said. Courts look at how often, how long and what words were used.

What a PIP means in Japan

A performance improvement plan works the same way on paper as it does in New York or London. In practice it is sometimes used as a step toward a resignation request or a dismissal. Most HR people know this.

You can often tell which kind you have from the goals. Are they specific and reachable in the time given, with support from your manager? Or are they vague, or set at a level nobody could hit?

What changes in Japan is what happens after a failed PIP. It does not automatically justify dismissal. In a 2013 Tokyo High Court ruling (April 24, 2013) on a dismissal for poor performance, the court asked whether the employer had pushed for improvement, given a real chance to improve, and whether further coaching could still work. It found the dismissal invalid. That is from the ministry's own labor law training material.

The PIP file becomes evidence for both sides. Keep your own copy: the goals, meeting dates, instructions and what you delivered. Dry facts are more useful later than how you felt.

How hard is it to dismiss someone in Japan?

Hard, because of one sentence. Article 16 of the Labor Contract Act says a dismissal is void as an abuse of right if it lacks objectively reasonable grounds and is not considered appropriate in general social terms. A global restructuring decision does not skip this test.

For redundancy dismissals, courts look at four factors, which the ministry lists as the business need to cut headcount, real effort to avoid dismissal (transfers, a voluntary program), a fair and objective way of choosing who goes, and proper explanation and good-faith consultation. "HQ eliminated the role" speaks to the first factor. It does not answer the other three.

If you are still on probation, that does not make you an easy exit either. I covered why in rejecting someone after probation counts as dismissal.

Why the reason on your separation papers matters

Japan's unemployment benefit (kihon teate) depends heavily on why you left. As of October 2026, per Hello Work:

If you leave because the company asked you to, you are normally treated as a "specified qualified recipient", the company-initiated category. Applying to a long-standing early retirement program does not count. This category has no benefit restriction: payments start after a 7-day waiting period, and the benefit duration can reach 330 days depending on age and years insured, against 150 days at most for an ordinary leaver.

If you resign on your own, you wait 7 days plus a restriction period. The ministry shortened that restriction to one month, in principle, for resignations from April 1, 2025. It is three months if you have resigned without good reason and qualified for benefits two or more times in the past five years. Taking reskilling training from April 2025 lifts the restriction.

So the wording matters. If the agreement says you are leaving "for personal reasons", arguing later that it was really the company's request is uphill. You can dispute the reason with Hello Work, but getting it right on paper first is much easier.

Don't sign the agreement in the room

Separation agreements sometimes appear at the end of the meeting with a same-day deadline. Asking to take it home and read it is normal, in Japan and anywhere.

Read for a handful of things. The last day, and what happens until then (garden leave or using up paid leave). The severance amount and payment date. How the reason for leaving is worded. The release clause, which often says no other claims exist between the parties, and whether it quietly wipes out unpaid overtime, a bonus or unvested equity. Confidentiality and any restriction on your next job.

For foreign staff there is usually one more item. Your visa status, company housing or a relocation clause may be tied to the job. Put those on the table before you agree to a date.

Severance is often negotiable. I don't have a reliable market figure for it, and I'd be suspicious of anyone who quotes one confidently; it varies a lot by tenure, age, role and how the company is doing. I find it more useful to know your own terms first. How long will it realistically take you to land the next role?

If it turns into a dispute

The realistic route is the labor tribunal (rodo shinpan). The courts aim to finish within three hearings, and cases closed between 2006 and 2024 took 82.6 days on average. Most settle through mediation. I wrote about the numbers in what Japan's labor tribunal cases show: roughly half involve dismissal.

A common ending is a claim to keep your job that settles into a payment and an agreed departure. For many companies that is the sensible outcome too.

Where I'm less sure: whether fighting hard is the right call for you. Some HQs understand Japanese law well. In others, the Japan HR team is quietly pushing back on a process that won't hold up here, and you never see it. Sometimes nobody local is doing that. From the employee's seat, it is hard to tell which company you are in.

This is general information, not legal advice. If you're unsure, the government's free Comprehensive Labor Consultation Corners take walk-ins, or talk to an employment lawyer early.

The first meeting rarely needs an answer. Use the days before the second one to decide whether you want to stay or want a good exit.