‘They refused to let me go’: Japanese workers turn to resignation agencies to quit jobs

Commuters at Shinjuku station, Tokyo. Resignation firms say consultations spike after holidays, weekends and rainy days. Photograph: Iain Masterton/Alamy

Mari was just two months into her new job when she decided she had had enough. The position at an online bank in Tokyo, found through a staffing agency, had looked like a perfect fit for the 25-year-old, a member of Japan’s legions of temporary workers.

But she quickly became despondent. “On my first day they gave me a thick manual to read, and when I went to my boss with questions he said: ‘What the hell are you asking me that for?’”