BY ANDREW STATTER
Every company in every geography, across every industry, suffers from staff turnover. Among those that leave an organization, you have some that the leadership is happy to be done with; but you also have top players with key business and systemic influence walking out the door.
The challenge for major Japanese organizations is that a high number of the latter cohort are the ones who are leaving. Despite an aging population and demographic challenges, well-branded, well-respected Japanese companies are still able to attract new graduates year upon year.
Though this is changing, veterans in the business also tend to stay until close to the expiration of their business lives. It is that core middle group that sits from early 30s to early 40s that are slipping through the fingers of your large trading houses, utilities, banks, and manufacturers.
This is not a case that Japanese companies are losing more people than they are hiring or downsizing. In fact, according to The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s annual Employment Trends Survey In 2025, the attrition rate in the sector was 8.8%, which was matched almost identically with the new hiring intake levels.
The issue is we aren’t replacing like-for-like.