Quitting job

Hello everyone,

I've been working in a hotel in Japan for a little more than one year. Saying this place is hell would be an understatement. Last year I tried to quit and they told me to endure because they paid for my visa. This year I renewed the visa myself and I got it for 3 years (specialist in humanities ecc), therefore i want to quit no matter what. My questions are:
1- I want to notify them by formal resignation letter. Do lawyers in Japan write and send this document or do I have to do it myself?
2-I'm currently looking for another job, but had no luck so far. How long can I stay in Japan jobless before they force me to come back to my country?

Thank you for your answers!

1. you can do it by yourself.
2. maybe about 3 months. you may stay longer without deportation. but, you have higher possibility to fail the renewal, if your jobless term is longer.

it is not clever to quit the job, before finding a new one. and at present it is not good time to change jobs.

I agree with Ken. You should find the new job FIRST, before quitting.

If you quit, you have to notify immigration within around 2 weeks, and then that will usually start an avalanche of trouble. To include you have to update immigration about your new job search status. Even if you find a job, it is said that immigration takes punitive actions and consider you more of a risk, so are more likely to give your work visa reduced time. Like if you had a 5 year work visa, get only 3 years. If a 3 year work visa, now get only 1 year.

Way better to find the new job first, then quit. The new job has to agree to sponsor your work visa, and you still have to report the switch of jobs to immigration, if you have lots of time left on the visa.

Also, something foreigners should know. Even if you don't notify immigration that you quit your job within 2 weeks, most companies will notify. Unless you have some kind of agreement with the company, which will usually not be the case if you quit.

Immigration can know that you quit your job, even without you telling them. Which then can possibly create a situation where they won't renew/extend your visa, if you come to them late or try to apply for an extension with a different company when the old visa's time is up.

Another element to this is you will have to submit tax documents to immigration for the last year worked. If information on the tax documents don't match, because a different company or the foreigner has none, this can become cause to not extend or grant a new work visa.

These issues and more are why it's way better to find a new job before quitting the old job, and then notify immigration that you switched companies. This will usually be fine, if the salary is comparable and the new company agrees to sponsor a new work visa.

Hi Robin,

Have you tried getting free professional advise?
https://www.check-roudou.mhlw.go.jp/soudan/foreigner.html

In any case, this is a time when jobs tend to be too busy (for essential workers) or too boring (for other workers). I hope you find your cozy corner.