​As a leading recruitment company in Tokyo, we speak to a lot of people looking to change jobs. Their reasons for moving on can be extremely varied, but we’ve compiled a list of the most common reasons why people leave companies (in no particular order).

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1.   They perceive the environment to be unfair.

The perception of fairness is incredibly important……so many candidates decide to leave companies as a result of perceived favoritism or systems and processes that they believe are unfair. Once someone reaches the point that they feel their career is limited by something which is out of their control, it’s often time to leave. In many cases, this boils down to communication, and the ability of management to explain the logic behind decision-making.

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2.  Personality clashes.

Again not exactly a new problem but personality clashes are a very common cause of people quitting – even more so in Japan, where they often go unaddressed. We always advise our clients to deal with these kinds of issues as quickly as possible and give employees a forum, to be honest about their feelings or opinions. These issues can quickly affect other people, especially in a Japanese working environment where staff will ignore or be deliberately awkward or passive-aggressive with each other, sometimes for years!

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3.  The environment is too domestic (or too international!)

Japanese employees tend to fall into two distinct categories. The ones that speak English (and are generally internationally minded) and the ones who don’t. It’s extremely common for the former group to want to find a more flexible, less hierarchical, modern environment than a typical domestic company can offer. We interview many candidates who are leaving their current company simply because it’s “too domestic.” However, companies should be cautious when hiring this kind of candidate – particularly when they have been in a domestic environment for several years. The image of working for an international business can be alluring but sometimes the culture shock is so great that the candidate is back on the market again in a few months!

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Being aware of those problems helps you to improve the environment and company culture. Yet those situations are not completely avoidable. We are here to help you to hire the best talents. Please do get in touch with us, if there are any questions!