Japan's Mysterious "Resignation-Time Contracts"

In Japan, when you quit a company, you’re sometimes made to sign pledges like:

• “Do not transfer to a competing company”
• “Do not work in the same industry for several years”
• “Do not go to a competitor”

This is normal even in the IT industry.

But these are actually pretty questionable.

I mean, common sense says:

“A person who was an IT engineer until yesterday should suddenly live in a completely different industry starting tomorrow” — that’s unreasonable.

So even in Japan, when these go to court, excessive non-compete obligations are often ruled invalid.

Of course:

• Don’t take confidential information out
• Don’t steal customer lists
• Don’t leak trade secrets

These are obviously off-limits.

But “don’t do the same job” is a different matter.

I was once asked to sign one of these when leaving a development company.

Honestly, I was pretty shocked.

“If I quit being an IT engineer, what am I supposed to do tomorrow?” — that was my reaction.

In the end, Japanese companies — especially when it comes to labor matters — are often run by:

“Because that’s how we’ve always done it”

rather than by:

• Law
• Court precedents
• Workers’ rights

Especially since Japan had a long culture of lifetime employment, there’s still an atmosphere where “quitting” itself is treated like a kind of betrayal.

That’s why quite a few people say going freelance gave them peace of mind.

Of course freelancing has instability, but:

• Your life isn’t held by the company
• You can keep distance from strange internal customs
• You can reset human relationships

These benefits are actually pretty big.

For people from overseas, just hearing:

“You’re made to sign documents restricting where you can work after resigning”

might be surprising on its own.

So when joining a Japanese company, beyond salary and job content, I think it’s worth checking:

• Resignation-time restrictions
• Side-job rules
• Non-compete obligations
• Pledge documents

at least once.