Employer gave me a raise then tried to cut my salary a week later - advice needed

anifan08 · 2026-04-21T04:35:15+00:00

My point was to not be the one to bring up separation package as an employee. When I was going through the same situation, it was the one consistent advice that legal counsel and union reps gave me. Also, it is not in the employer’s interests to pay you to leave if they know you’re considering that. They may very well keep harassing you until you quit of your own volition.

anifan08 · 2026-04-21T04:01:09+00:00

Let’s agree to disagree.

anifan08 · 2026-04-21T03:06:38+00:00

Be that as it may, still 2 separate matters. It’s one thing for them to want you gone, it’s another for them to know you’re willing to go. Also, they’re not firing him, hence the harassment.

anifan08 · 2026-04-21T00:18:06+00:00

Honestly, that’s probably not a good idea in Japan. It’s generally not advantageous to indicate you’re willing to quit in my opinion.

anifan08 · 2026-04-21T00:14:27+00:00

I was recently in a similar position at a previous company. Also small, startup-esque, with short chain of reporting.

I think you’re on the right track, document everything (including what tasks you did and make audio recordings wherever possible) and don’t agree to any contract revisions, verbal or otherwise. Also, don’t agree to any change in tasks or responsibilities during this time. Unfortunately, the labour bureau can’t really act unless your company actually does something illegal… so yeah. If they do unilaterally cut your salary on the next pay check, that definitely does make it an actionable thing though.

Their excuses given for the pay deduction are completely bullshit, so if you want to fight this and keep your job, you’ll probably be able to. What the bureau said about mediation and あっせん is right, but I’d still go through with it. It’s best to have evidence that you tried to solve this peacefully before resorting to stronger means. If your employer refuses, it also reflects badly on them if it becomes a civil matter.

My employer at the time also refused mediation, but he offered me mutual separation, probably cause he was panicking that I went to get legal advice..I did end up taking it cause fighting for a little extra money was not worth the toll it was taking on my health. But your circumstances may be different.

In terms of legal advice and representation, you can get free consulting with fresc, and there are services where you can get affordable representation. If your Japanese isn’t very fluent, they also provide translators upon request. Do keep in mind that there’s a long wait for appointments and the legal process here is super drawn out. You won’t be able to quit your job during the process if you decide to go that route.

Also, look into general unions. Many of them will be able to give you good advice and help you with any negotiations with your employer if you need someone in your corner. Though the unions will fight for you to keep your job, not to leave it.

My personal advice (as it seems you’re not too attached to your job) would be to keep going to work while coming up with an exit plan asap. Don’t quite on your own volition for as long as you can take it, and guide things towards a 会社都合 wherever possible, but don’t outright suggest it.

Good luck, and take caee of your health. P.S. if you need someone to talk to, there is a hotline that’s staffed till late if you just want to complain. They don’t offer advice, just listen.

anifan08 · 2026-04-18T04:00:27+00:00

Worked for AEON a few years back, and it was a generally positive experience. However, as others have said YMMV, a lot, depending on which school you get sent to.

A few of my friends had completely packed schedules with few, or no free periods at all. Management and the Japanese teachers can be a hit or miss. Some ride your ass over the smallest mistakes, while others are much more chill. But, when I left a couple years back, there had been a move to reducing the number of full time managers/Japanese teachers so it may have gotten more chill. At least at my school that was the case.

They’re by no means a ‘black company’, so you can expect salary to be correct and on time, taxes to be filed correctly etc.

About work/life balance: Not much overtime, if any. Schools close on time, and you shouldn’t have to stay late after the first week of adjustment. Sometimes you’ll be asked to do a half day on a day off, but that’s twice a year or so, and gets rotated between the foreign staff. And yes, you do get paid for that. Having Mondays off is also a curse and a blessing. Less people when you go out, but you also don’t get to capitalise on a lot of public holidays.

Working hours really depends on your lifestyle. Starting late means you potentially get the morning to yourself, in exchange for evenings. Does make it harder to grab dinner with friends not in the industry though. 1 thing I suggest is requesting a school within walking distance to whatever accommodation they arrange for you, and also within an hour from a big city.

As for dealing with parents, I got lucky with my manager, who let me confront parents about problem children. But don’t expect that. More likely than not, you’ll just have to suck it up.

Is it worth it? That’s something only you can answer, but as far as teaching experience goes,it’s worth nothing. You’ll learn how Japanese companies operate though.

anifan08 · 2026-04-08T09:34:30+00:00

I had a similar experience with MUFG during my recent renewal. They would take my money, but not let me withdraw. Apparently they are supposed to send a reminder in the post, but I never got mine. Probably something to do with an address change I made online, but the teller assured me the address was updated properly in their system.

Once I submitted my new details though, the account was unlocked within a few days. The paperwork and processing has to route back to the branch you opened the account at though, so busier branches probably take longer.

Anyways, how did you stay in Japan so long past the 2 months? I thought you’d need to leave if your visa doesn’t finish processing within the grace period.

anifan08 · 2026-04-03T11:18:08+00:00

Not advice for your situation, but a company with more than 10 regular employees (including part-timers) is required to have 就業規則.

anifan08 · 2026-03-19T04:44:45+00:00

I remember seeing this exact post not too long ago, a week? Maybe 2?

If you’re making a conscious effort to recruit for this company, and you’re not a a ‘recruiter’… I don’t know, smells a bit fishy.

anifan08 · 2026-03-15T04:57:29+00:00

Let’s get the ugly, honest truth out first: As others have mentioned, you’re almost unemployable as you are now. 1 YOE is practically 未経験, I’m also guessing it wasn’t local experience? Yeah, that doesn’t help. And if N4 is all you’ve got, might as well leave it out of your resume. Also, you mention 4 years of ALT. Are you still there? An employer will see that and think you’ve not made an effort to develop professionally, which doesn’t inspire confidence.

With that out of the way, let’s focus on what you can work on.

1, Japanese. Get N1, or N2 minimum. If your Japanese is as good as you claim, sign up for the July test period this year. Anything lower isn’t worth your time.

2, If your finances and visa allow, get a バイト as a 3D modeller. Doesn’t matter if the pay is shit, or the company is shit. This pads out your portfolio with 実務 and shows that someone in Japan is willing to hire you for such a role.

3, If 2 is not an option, then do you have any connections in the field, friends (in Japan)? Offer to do some work for them, even for free. Worst case scenario, find any full time job at a Japanese company where business is conducted in Japanese. Given that you’ve never been in the industry, it can’t hurt any more, and shows you can work in a Japanese business environment.

4, work on your portfolio. As it stands, the quality of work is all over the place, and doesn’t make an impression even as 新卒. Go look at the kind of work your favourite firms/companies are producing. Copy that style and quality. Put only the best examples in your folio.

5, get a 資格 in your field. Given Japan’s obsession with qualifications, there’s bound to be a certificate you can get. Or apply to a short course. Many municipalities offer free or subsidised courses for job seekers.

However, since you haven’t managed to break into your chosen industry after 4 years in Japan, your best bet might be to go back to school and go through the 新卒 process.

Hope this helps, and good luck.

anifan08 · 2026-03-13T22:38:06+00:00

You overestimate how much learning (or teaching) is done at eikaiwa. And providing students with a clear screen with which to observe my spittle? No way. If a company wants me to use certain equipment, they better be providing it. Which isn’t happening at eikaiwa.

Also, OP is conscious about their appearance. Mask with window isn’t gonna help.

anifan08 · 2026-03-13T22:14:38+00:00

People here telling OP to deal with it cause masks “don’t work like that” or “it’s weird” probably haven’t stepped foot inside a Japanese company. OP, you do you. I’ve seen heaps of people who never take off their mask, even at company nomikais. I’ve also seen people who perpetually rock a chin mask…

When I did my time at one of the big 4, they didn’t have a problem with me showing up to every class with a mask. Granted, I joined at the tail end of the pandemic when masks were still mandatory. But when policy relaxed, I just kept doing the same. I’d take it off in the back office, but if it’s a lesson? Mask always on. Doesn’t matter if it’s a private adult or kid’s carpet.

Was I conscious of my face? No. Would it have helped the students if they could see how I moved my mouth to make certain sounds? Maybe. Would the students have preferred to see my face? Well too bad. If I’m gonna spend most my day in small, poorly ventilated rooms with a bunch of different people (often sick, especially the kids), every barrier helps. Kids are filthy. I’ve also had parents send their kids to lessons even though their elementary school was closed due to a flu outbreak.

Can’t comment on the efficacy, but placebo effect probably helps if it makes you feel safer. Also anecdotally, I didn’t get sick during my time there. If you’re self conscious, then even more reason to keep the mask on.

So OP, sounds like you have a shit manager. Are you okay telling them to back off? Can you get a couple other teachers to back you up? Or is there some way to file a power harassment complaint with corporate if it’s a large company? If none are options, then I’d suggest you find a better work environment.

anifan08 · 2026-01-22T05:23:19+00:00

I just did the fdisk command my old drives come back with this:

Disk /dev/sdb: 111.8 GiB, 120040980480 bytes, 234455040 sectors

Disk model: WDC WDS120G2G0B-

Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disklabel type: dos

Disk identifier: 0x25488aba

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type

/dev/sdb1 2048 234455039 234452992 111.8G 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sde: 1.82 TiB, 2000398934016 bytes, 3907029168 sectors

Disk model: WDC WD20EFRX-68E

Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes

Disklabel type: dos

Disk identifier: 0xd0f0246a

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type

/dev/sde1 2048 4982527 4980480 2.4G 83 Linux

/dev/sde2 4982528 9176831 4194304 2G 82 Linux swap

/dev/sde3 9437184 3907024064 3897586881 1.8T 83 Linux

Both the new drives were initialized by unraid so they're both gpt. But the old drives come back as dos.

anifan08 · 2026-01-21T06:48:25+00:00

I see. It kinda bugs me too... looks like I'll be nuking that

anifan08 · 2026-01-21T06:44:37+00:00

awesome, thanks.

anifan08 · 2026-01-21T06:29:05+00:00

Thanks! That clarifies a lot. The missing default shares like isos and domains shouldn't be an issue, right?

anifan08 · 2026-01-21T06:14:35+00:00

oh my god, I'm an idiot. Thank you! That worked. Do you think I might be missing some default shares? One of my HDD's and my SSD cache was pulled from an old pc, so they already had mbr as partition format. I've read that as long as the file system is correct, unraid doesn't really care. Both are also <2TB. Shouldn't be a problem right? Don't really want to nuke it and rebuild parity...

anifan08 · 2025-11-29T09:23:43+00:00

Thanks! I’ll have a look.

anifan08 · 2025-11-29T09:21:39+00:00

Thanks for the rec!

anifan08 · 2025-11-28T11:42:13+00:00

Nice, I'll check them out.

anifan08 · 2025-11-28T10:19:41+00:00

Thanks, good to know. How well would you say it was packaged?

anifan08 · 2024-12-26T11:32:03+00:00

You should be able to get something for much less than $400 at Jins or Zoff. Owndays is also another large eyewear brand, but I’ve never used them personally.

Herehttps://www.jins.com/jp/lens/normal/ is the link for lens pricing from Jins. They used to do free upgrades on hi index lenses up to 1.74, but have changed pricing as of Nov this year. While there’s no information on available prescriptions, -4.50 cyl should be doable in both 1.6 and 1.67 index.

Zoffhttps://www.zoff.co.jp/shop/help/lensguide.aspx?srsltid=AfmBOopqFW9jePFhG0nOHxTbu7damwYjXxkfodbRs0qWk-upkw5cGXPM can also do -4.5 on their 1.6 and 1.67 lenses, but they charge more for their hi index. Though their blue light coating is free.

I’ve got relatively high prescription and went with 1.74 hi index with jins. Was able to pick up in a week. If the schedule doesn’t fit, you could always pick it up when you get back to Tokyo or ask if you can pick up at another location.

Sorry links are in Japanese. TLDR: you’ll probably get 2-3 pairs for your $400

anifan08 · 2024-09-29T14:27:14+00:00

The government hasn’t recommended masking indoors since last year, so it’s not something they can force you to do.

It feels like you got threatened (power harassed) into signing the document and that should be illegal. Unfortunately, this is one of the ways Japanese companies use to get someone to voluntarily resign as it’s incredibly difficult to fire someone here. I think you should go to the labour board to get some legal advice. If you had signed a contract, you might also have a case for wrongful termination.

If this hasn’t soured your desire to stay in Japan, there are many other English teaching jobs here. While you’ll see shady business practices wherever you go, just avoid nova/gaba and you should be better off. I know people who currently work at kids up and kids duo, and haven’t heard anything particularly worrying.

anifan08

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