How AI is Breaking Japan’s Job Market
Of all the work cultures across the world, Japan stands out as one of the most organized and structured. Where the western capitalist system encourages businesses to hire people based on their goals and needs, Japan’s business culture is something else entirely. But this is now being challenged. As the globalized economy continues to shift in unpredictable ways, it looks like Japan, for the first time in decades, will have to change its traditions regarding secure and consistent employment. That’s where things start to get complicated. Sure, Japan promises job security and a guarantee of promotions the longer you work for the company, but at the same time, this Asian tiger tends to work its middle class to the bone. However, artificial intelligence is slowly starting to change things. Most redundant tasks in the office can now be automated, leading to a decreased need for employees. Nevertheless, Japan simply doesn’t fire people. Businesses prefer to relocate them instead. So, how will Japan’s business culture maintain itself against a changing society and the introduction of AI in business operations? First, we’ll need to take a deep look into how the workplace functions in Japan and what makes it so different. At the heart of Japanese work culture are two unwritten rules that shape nearly everything. Lifetime employment, shushin coyo, and seniority based promotions, neno joretssu. These aren’t just company or national policies. They’re pillars that hold the Japanese business society together. The idea of lifetime employment or shushin coyo in Japan took off after World War II. It was a time when society was struggling with hope and companies were looking to step in. They offered people a lifetime job security and a seat at the table. What did they get in exchange? Loyalty, dedication, and time. Their whole work lives to be exact. But even though it sounded like a corporate trap, it was actually Japan’s way of incorporating Confucian familial ideas into the workplace. The structure helped stabilize the post-war economy by keeping unemployment low and morale high. It wasn’t uncommon to see workers spend 30 to 40 years at the same company, retiring with a fat pension, full respect, and a dignified farewell party. Straying away from it wouldn’t feel like betrayal. it would feel unJapanese to the core. According to the Japanese Bureau of Statistics, the average tenure of employment in a company is a little over 10 years. That’s almost twice as much as the average in Europe and the US. In 2022, the ratio of workers employed for 10 years or more in Japan was 46.8%, the second highest in the world. The second pillar is seniority based promotions or Neno Jetsu. Now, if you’re from anywhere else, you might be used to promotions based on achievements or quality of work. In the US and most of the Western world, there are workplaces where new employees climb the corporate ladder due to their specialized skills, while older workers stay in a post they joined years ago. In Japan, things happen a little differently with motivation similar to lifetime employment. Japanese work culture looks to reward loyalty, commitment, and dedication to your job. This is why staying in the same company for decades can help you get greater age-based benefits. Instead of performance around the workplace, promotions are given to employees who are closer to their retirement. Suppose you’ve been working at a Japanese company for 5 years and another employee has been there for 10. Even if you tend to be more productive, the older employee will be considered for promotion before you. And that’s just the way it is. This isn’t just witnessed in Japan’s business community. Even in the seat in Japan’s parliament are filled primarily by the senior members of the party and not on the basis of who is a better fit. The system is seen as a way to honor the elders in society and acknowledge their contributions. For the longest time, Japan has been seen as the future of technological advancement. Although automation was the norm since the late ‘9s, Japan has always needed people to operate the machinery, but at the heart of it all is tradition, hierarchy, and human labor. In 2025, 75% of Japan’s employers were hiring for the white-collared sector in the country. This is Japan’s largest economic sector. Most members of the population would join this white collar workforce in hopes of long-term employment and benefits like job security. AI is changing this more and more every day. White collar jobs are known for their redundant tasks and repetitive cycles. All tasks that can be replaced by machine learning and AI. Unlike in the manufacturing sector where robotics has long played a role, Japan’s offices are experiencing a more recent wave of automation. Tasks like scheduling, inventory management, invoice processing, and customer support are increasingly being handled by AI software. From afar, it seems like progress, but to many people, it means no dinner on the table. With the introduction of AI, Japanese companies are going through structural reform, firing old employees who cannot keep up with the trends of modernization. Now, Japan has a situation where people have been working towards an easy retirement and better pay at the end of their careers, but they’re suddenly being laid off without warning. Not only does this put a huge amount of pressure on the workforce, but it takes away the job security many were banking on. Even without the external pressures of AI, Japan’s workforce has high rates of depression and self harm. And just when you think removing people from the workforce to automate tasks would be beneficial for Japanese companies, it’s not. Japan doesn’t have the culture of outright firing employees. Unfortunately, it is the present circumstances that are causing that to change. That’s where the term muggiwa zoku or window tribe comes from. It’s a group of people with low importance roles in the office, usually near the windows. These people aren’t essential to the workplace, but are kept around simply because of Japan’s relocation culture. Yet, Japan’s aging workforce isn’t the only one facing a change. There are two issues at the heart of the country’s new workforce. Number one, there aren’t enough people to fill the workforce in the future. Number two, the youth are steering away from Japan’s toxic work culture. According to a 2020 survey by the Japan Institute of Labor Policy and Training, 80 to 90% of companies want to keep long-term policies for future generations. At the same time, Japan’s youth are realizing the flaws in Japan’s work culture and aren’t ready to settle for corporate enslavement. A study showed that a large portion of the population wants to work in an environment where hard work and effort are rewarded instead of seniority and tenure served. Many people are more aligned with the freelance sector where they feel they have freedom to earn and live life as well. Freelancing, gig work, and remote consulting are all growing trends in Japan. Digital platforms now make it easier to build a personal brand, find short-term projects, or even work for overseas companies without ever entering a Japanese office. At the same time, globalization is playing a role in expanding AI’s impact on Japan’s economy. Companies are now preferring short-term project-based recruitments to serve the company’s needs as opposed to keeping employees around due to social constructs of loyalty. What we’re looking at now is a quiet shift towards skill arbitrage, where value is determined not by how long you’ve worked, but by what you can do right now. This also introduces a challenge for Japan’s broader economic health. A society built around stable employment has predictable spending habits. Tax contributions and household structures. With a shift towards AI, contract-based work and freelance economic expectations become unpredictable, and the economy does too. So, is AI the end of Japan’s cultural influence in the workforce? It doesn’t have to be. Japan has a resilient culture that has the potential to adapt to technological innovation and changing business trends. And let’s face it, the statistics for mental health and Japan’s white collar industry weren’t good to begin with. Japan may be a technological marvel for the modern world, but its business culture is still years behind. Where does Japan go from here? Right now, it’s got to choose between being stuck in the past or evolving with the technology it produces. Because sooner or later, this intricate system might just cave in and it’ll take the economy with it.
Of all the work cultures across the world, Japan stands out as one of the most organized and structured. Where the Western capitalist system encourages businesses to hire people based on their goals and needs, Japan’s business culture is something else entirely. But this is now being challenged. As the globalized economy continues to shift in unpredictable ways, it looks like Japan, for the first time in decades, will have to change its traditions regarding secure and consistent employment. That’s where things start to get complicated. Sure, Japan promises job security and a guarantee of promotions the longer you work for the company, but at the same time, this Asian Tiger tends to work its middle class to the bone. However, Artificial Intelligence is slowly starting to change things.
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5 Comments
After all my experience with the current Artificial "Intelligence" (Stupidity) I cannot believe this is actually happening. They will destroy their own companies. There is no such thing as AI, in my every single interaction with it as a software engineer, it has proven to be no more useful than spending all day waiting for answers on StackOverflow only to figure it out myself.
Lolwhat. Everywhere connections and nepotism decide everything.
People already are like robots why replace it
We need a global 0 child policy for 22 years till one full generation can get jobs and houses.
In Japan it's a major cultural issue.