Bandai Namco has reportedly turned to the unspoken Japanese tradition of layoff-by-boredom by stuffing unwanted employees into oidashi beya, or “expulsion rooms.”

Employees banished reassigned to oidashi beya are left to do nothing, or given menial tasks at best. According to Bloomberg’s unnamed insider sources, Bandai Namco has moved around 200 of its 1,300 person team to these rooms in recent months.

The goal of sticking someone in an expulsion room is to literally bore or shame them into quitting, and Bloomberg’s sources claim it has worked on around half the people Bandai Namco has stuck in there so far.

  • Allonzee@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    The Japanese are one of the few countries worthy of even more pity than us Americans when it comes to slaving for and being defined by their vocation.

    I agree with you completely, but people who don’t play the meaningless game of career trajectory are literally shunned by family there for it.

    • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      Not to sound too Korean… but, that’s kinda the social repercussion of electing war criminals, then the children of war criminals, and the grandchildren of war criminals to lead your country.

      Modern Japan is a weird poly-sci experiment examining what would happen if you took guns away from a fascist government.

      • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        It’s not that different in Korea though. If you don’t work for Samsung or SK Group you are lower class. And your old friends who do work for those Chaebols will stop associating with you.

        • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          If you don’t work for Samsung or SK Group you are lower class.

          I mean, that’s just factually incorrect. South Korea has a fairly large manufacturing economy, a lot of my family are shipwrights and make really decent money. The other half of my family works for banks and for the government, none of them are considered low class.

          South Korea does have a pretty brutal work regiment, but they also have very aggressive trade unions who aren’t afraid to go on massive and often violent strikes.

          old friends who do work for those Chaebols will stop associating with you.

          According to who? I mean you may stop seeing them as often, but that’s just because the work culture often extends out of office. It’s pretty traditional to go out drinking or eating with your coworkers, but that doesn’t mean people stop associating with their friends who don’t work with them.