The viral story of how a Japanese chemical company, Kaneka, reassigned an employee to the Western part of Japan immediately after he returned from paternity leave in Tokyo left netizens indignant last week. And the story has also caused many non-Japanese to scratch their heads and wonder how a company could be so insensitive.
Actually, unwelcome transfers to far-flung locations are not at all uncommon in Japanese organizations. For example, I can remember a very talented woman I worked with at a Japanese bank in Tokyo who got married to one of our co-workers. Whenever anyone congratulated her on her marriage, she'd make a point of saying, "I plan to keep working." A few months later, however, the bank transferred her husband to its Nagoya branch — but not her. In order to be with her husband, she chose to quit her job and end her career with the bank.
These types of situations happen frequently in Japan due to the way the employment relationship is structured, and how Japanese companies manage their human resources — both of which are very different from what's typical in other countries.
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