Isshinjō no tsugō ni yori (一身上の都合により): for personal reasons. A guide in Mynavi News says that on a resignation notice, writing this phrase as the reason is basically all that is needed.
When the employee leaves by choice, the guide adds, no detailed reason has to be given.
In the Shiroishi Forestry Office case, decided on March 2, 1973, Japan’s Supreme Court ruled on annual paid leave. The purpose for which the leave is used is no concern of the Labor Standards Act. How the leave is spent is the worker’s freedom, and the employer may not interfere.
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare publishes guidance on fair hiring. It lists matters that employers should not ask about on application forms or in interviews.
Among them are the applicant’s family, including their occupations, health, education, income and assets. Others are the applicant’s housing, down to the floor plan and the number of rooms, and the applicant’s living and home environment.
Kōshi (公私): public and private. The Digital Daijisen defines it as public matters and private matters.
Kōshi kondō (公私混同): mixing public and private. Lumping public and private matters together without drawing a line between them. The definition uses the word kejime, a clear line or distinction.
In August 2023, the company Tōshō Bōeki surveyed 1,441 people in their twenties online. Of them, 76.4 percent said they did not tell people at work about their private social media accounts. Among the main reasons for not going out privately with colleagues was Puraibēto to shigoto wa waketai. I want to keep private life and work apart.
In a survey by the company Shikigaku of 300 office workers aged 20 to 59, reported in August 2023, 59.7 percent thought friends at work were necessary. Of those who did not, 68.7 percent gave this reason: Shigoto to puraibēto wa wakete iru kara. Because I keep work and private life apart.
The guideline on power harassment of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare includes a type called ko no shingai, intrusion on the individual. It means going too far into a worker’s private matters. Its examples include monitoring a worker continuously even outside the workplace, and taking photos of a worker’s personal belongings.
Another example is disclosing a worker’s sensitive personal information to other workers without consent, such as sexual orientation, gender identity, medical history or fertility treatment.
In Kurosawa Kiyoshi’s film Tōkyō Sonata (Tokyo Sonata), released in Japan on September 27, 2008, a father has lost his job in a restructuring but cannot bring himself to tell his family.
At the 61st Cannes Film Festival, the film won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section.
In April 2012, Rengo, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, surveyed 1,000 working people about their ties with others. Of them, 57.5 percent said, fully or partly, that they had someone at work they could consult about private matters. A further question found that 50.8 percent also spent private time with people from work.
Asked whether time with people from work sometimes left them no time of their own, 28.5 percent said this applied to them fully or partly. Among men, the figure was 36.6 percent.