Japan workers transfers in real life

My question is that in japanese dramas the workers are always worried about getting transferred to some remote location. Does this happen frequently in real life there. Is it that bad? I think its better than getting fired.

I think... under the Japanese labor law, it's hard to fire workers or to cut their salaries, so to make changes/relegation become more realistic.

Many have to go alone leaving wife and kids behind (because of kid's schooling & keeping the house). So they don't see the family often, only on long holidays. And he has to do all the things that his wife used to take care of, i.e. cooking, laundry, cleaning, food shopping, etc.

Actually, I don't think this is unique to Japan, but there is "eiten" (promotional transfer) and "sasen" (demotion transfer).

Any company would have a better branch/plant and a worse branch/plant. At better places, life can be easy. It can even be paradise compared to the head office. One who works there would be considered an elite and usually that experience leads to a better position in the future.

At the worse places, however, life can be hard, and at that company it may automatcally mean no future.

In dramas (like "Hanzawa Naoki") as well as movies, a character might receive orders to be transfered, and if (s)he seems to be in shock that means it's a sasen. On the other hand, if the character seems happy that means it's eiten.

But the happiness of life may not always be about positions and wages. Even in a sasen situation, a character might discover a new culture and new life that leads to a better way of thinking.

Anyway, that's how transfers are used in entertainment.

As for real life, yes, it does happen, but of course it depends on the company or industry. In the 70s, bankers were known to be transfered very frequently.

While the worker works in Tokyo head office, he/she is on highroad to success, he/she can be expected to promote onto higher/better position, whereas transferred especially outside of Tokyo branch or office means he/she is out of success, his/her promotion is (almost) ended, which means no hope in the future inside where he/she works. So that some workers decide to leave where he/she works.

I was born/raised in a well known Western-European country. Many government employees there were routinely transferred around the country. By government employees I mean Post office station masters, rural police, school principals, hospitals administrators, income tax department workers, customs officers, teachers and many more.

Because they might move every few years they couldn't buy houses as the prices fluctuated a lot depending on regions, towns etc. So they lived in subsided housing.
This didn't mean low income buildings but whatever home the government owned..or rented. In many cases they lived above their workplace (a school principal lived in the school).

My parents were transferred several times (they worked together). At one time they had to live in a small house, so they rented a studio nearby for us kids. Another time the house they got was huge..with more big rooms that we couldn't use. Rent was always very reasonable, cheap actually.

My brother worked for a company in our birth country that had work sites in Africa so he went to several African countries, at times without his family. In exchange he got a big bonus each year, all expenses paid, plus 2 months vacation.

I agree with Red Frog and it's similar in Japan.

Tokyo is not necessarily the center of "all" organizations. Many companies and establishments have successful offices or even head offices in other cities such as Osaka or Nagoya, and some may have important plants in rural or foreign areas.

Again, what you call "promising" or not really depends on the organization or the industry.