I work for a start-up Japanese company where I am the only foreigner and they announced this week that they can’t pay salaries this month (and maybe not next month either). Management said straight up: “If you want to quit or stop working, you can.”
But what surprised me is that many of my coworkers are still working as usual like joining meetings, doing projects, everything, even though there’s no guarantee we’ll get paid.
This isn’t a small delay either; it’s already been a while, and the company is clearly struggling with cash flow. I decided to stop working from next week because I can’t afford to keep going unpaid and need to find a new job so I could start hopefully next month, but I’m trying to understand… is this common in Japan?
Do people just keep working out of love, loyalty, guilt, or maybe hope that the company will recover?
Would love to hear from anyone who’s gone through something similar here.. how did you handle it?
P.S.
The company said they won’t declare bankruptcy, but they’re talking about creating a new company instead so they can “restart fresh.”
Meanwhile, they told employees that no salary can be paid from this month and we can leave if we want or wait until they have the new company.
It’s honestly confusing, and I’m not sure what this means legally or for future payments so I plan to go to 労基 about it.
by chacha3825