The meanings of tenshoku for Japanese young regular workers: a self-reliant strategy to pursue well-being

Abstract

Tenshoku means changing jobs: quitting one’s company and starting work in a new company. Under the lifetime employment system, regular workers have enjoyed the security and stability provided by corporations, and tenshoku used to be rare among regular workers. In the decades after the Japanese economic bubble burst in 1991, tenshoku has become a more common practice in Japan. However, even now, young people’s job-changing behavior is often regarded negatively. What young workers inside the prestigious lifetime employment system think of tenshoku remains underexamined. This qualitative study uses young regular workers’ experiences of tenshoku as a lens to investigate their values. Overall, instead of relying steadfastly on their employers, I find in this study that young workers are actively utilizing tenshoku for better working lives: it is an option that supports their subjective well-being.

Keywords:

• Japan
• regular employees
• job-changing
• well-being
• lifetime employment

Acknowledgments

I want to thank my interviewees for sharing their experiences with me. I would also like to thank my supervisor, Glenda S. Roberts, for her guidance. I am grateful to Gracia Liu-Farrer, Jordan Sand, and the members of the seminar I attend at Waseda University for their suggestions. Further, I am grateful for the comments of two anonymous reviewers and the help of the editor of Asian Anthropology. Finally, I am grateful for financial support from the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC).

Disclosure statement

The author reports there are no competing interests to declare.