Blogs and Articles from Third Way Forum Membrs
Jul 7, 2022
Discussion#3 The Tenkin (The Relocation Practice in Japan)
Blogs from The Third Way Working Group
- Companies can not and should not continue with Tenkin, the traditional Japanese people transfer practice in Japan based on the one-sided order from the company.
- The Tenkin practice was based on the assumption of employees’ unconditional loyalty and automatic acceptance of transfer which employees offered in the past because companies provided the life-long employment guarantee in return. But now with no more life-long employment, the one-sided transfer decision by company does not make sense any longer, and many young people are rather quitting than accepting such transfer as they have many job opportunities outside nowadays.
- Imposing unwanted transfer on employees without clear mutual agreement with impacted employees could be seen as potential human right issue in the near future.
- Such transfer should be avoided by arranging remote working practice, hiring someone locally and/or hiring more foreigners who are willing to work in Japan.
- If skill transfer to the remote office or skill development of certain employees is the purpose of the transfer, instead of a long-term physical relocation, a few month temporary assignment or weekly commuting arrangement by plane or Shinkansen would be much more practical as it disrupts employees life much less.
- However, in some jobs and industries such as life line infrastructure facilities in country side etc, someone may have to be assigned to a small country side town for a long time.
- If the company has to physically assign someone to a remote location for a few years, the company then needs to persuade the person with clear explanation of
1. the purpose,
2. necessity of physical presence (why it’s not remote or temporary),
3. family support,
4. career path moving forward,
5. and other options and negotiation items if any.
- In order to make the transfer attractive, the company should provide some significant financial benefits and allowances.
- Also, companies should pitch those remote location jobs as something exciting to appeal to the spirit of adventure of employees. “Join the Navy! See the World!”
- If some significant financial benefits and emotional excitement are provided, finding or persuading someone willing to relocate to a remote location will be possible.
- The bottom line is, the traditional transfer practice (Tenkin) does not work any more. It makes employees, their families and also the business suffer. Unhappy people can do only unhappy jobs. Unless you are in a special organization such as military, in a modern democratic society, if you want someone to do something, you need to ask nicely and persuade with a win-win proposal. When the company wants someone to transfer somewhere, the company also has to ask nicely and persuade with a win-win proposal. And if the person says “No thank you!”, the company has to respect the person’s decision.
- More and more Japanese companies will be forced to consolidate their operations in Japan due to rapid population decline in rural areas. Remote working practice is becoming a normal workstyle these days. And young people easily decline and quit any unwanted transfer. Considering these three things, we predict that in the near future, the traditional transfer practice (Tenkin) will disappear from Japan and will be replaced by the mutually agreed and highly incentivized transfer practice as practiced in global companies.
- The Tenkin practice was based on the assumption of employees’ unconditional loyalty and automatic acceptance of transfer which employees offered in the past because companies provided the life-long employment guarantee in return. But now with no more life-long employment, the one-sided transfer decision by company does not make sense any longer, and many young people are rather quitting than accepting such transfer as they have many job opportunities outside nowadays.
- Imposing unwanted transfer on employees without clear mutual agreement with impacted employees could be seen as potential human right issue in the near future.
- Such transfer should be avoided by arranging remote working practice, hiring someone locally and/or hiring more foreigners who are willing to work in Japan.
- If skill transfer to the remote office or skill development of certain employees is the purpose of the transfer, instead of a long-term physical relocation, a few month temporary assignment or weekly commuting arrangement by plane or Shinkansen would be much more practical as it disrupts employees life much less.
- However, in some jobs and industries such as life line infrastructure facilities in country side etc, someone may have to be assigned to a small country side town for a long time.
- If the company has to physically assign someone to a remote location for a few years, the company then needs to persuade the person with clear explanation of
1. the purpose,
2. necessity of physical presence (why it’s not remote or temporary),
3. family support,
4. career path moving forward,
5. and other options and negotiation items if any.
- In order to make the transfer attractive, the company should provide some significant financial benefits and allowances.
- Also, companies should pitch those remote location jobs as something exciting to appeal to the spirit of adventure of employees. “Join the Navy! See the World!”
- If some significant financial benefits and emotional excitement are provided, finding or persuading someone willing to relocate to a remote location will be possible.
- The bottom line is, the traditional transfer practice (Tenkin) does not work any more. It makes employees, their families and also the business suffer. Unhappy people can do only unhappy jobs. Unless you are in a special organization such as military, in a modern democratic society, if you want someone to do something, you need to ask nicely and persuade with a win-win proposal. When the company wants someone to transfer somewhere, the company also has to ask nicely and persuade with a win-win proposal. And if the person says “No thank you!”, the company has to respect the person’s decision.
- More and more Japanese companies will be forced to consolidate their operations in Japan due to rapid population decline in rural areas. Remote working practice is becoming a normal workstyle these days. And young people easily decline and quit any unwanted transfer. Considering these three things, we predict that in the near future, the traditional transfer practice (Tenkin) will disappear from Japan and will be replaced by the mutually agreed and highly incentivized transfer practice as practiced in global companies.
Sponsor
