On April 30, the last day of Heisei, I left a company where I worked for exactly five years. I aspired to start a new life with the advent of the new Reiwa Era.
To put it in a nutshell, as far as the salary is concerned, it was "The Five Years' Disgrace." (Readers may have heard of a famous nonfiction book "The Twenty Years' Crisis.") Management tried to keep me by offering a higher salary, but in vain. It was too late.
Besides, I had another reason to leave the company. My section leased out the company's properties, including apartments, and there were some staff who stubbornly refused to rent apartments to non-Japanese people, just because it might get troublesome. That is gross violation of human rights; Japanese courts have repeatedly ruled against such discrimination. I did not want to work with racists any longer. My first name literally means "righteous way," which I followed as my parents anticipated when they named me.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.
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