It’s tempting to say that working in Japan isn’t 黒 (kuro, black) or 白 (shiro, white), it’s many shades of 灰色 (haiiro, gray). But according to recent news reports, young workers are definitely seeing things in terms of ブラック企業 (burakku kigyō, “black” companies) and ホワイト企業 (howaito kigyō, “white” companies).

Last month, a story that made the rounds said, 職場がホワイトすぎることを理由に転職する若者が増えています (shokuba ga howaito sugiru koto o riyū ni tenshoku suru wakamono ga fuete-imasu, [the number of] young people who are changing their jobs is increasing because of workplaces that are too “white”). It was a pretty shocking headline to see. Why on Earth would Japan’s Z世代 (zetto sedai, Generation Z) reject more progressive ホワイト企業 for the notorious ブラック企業 that made the news before the pandemic?

To understand this trend further, it’s important to know that ブラック企業 are synonymous with oppressive labor conditions such as 長時間労働 (chōjikan rōdō, long working hours), 極端なノルマ (kyokutanna noruma, exorbitant tasks/quotas) and ハラスメントの横行 (harasumento no ōkō, rampant harassment). The employees at such companies will typically claim that ノルマがきつくて残業が多すぎる (noruma ga kitsukute zangyō ga ōsugiru, the tasks are demanding and there is too much overtime). Indeed, ブラック企業 are places of excess, and the best way to express that in Japanese is with the verb-suffix すぎる (sugiru).