Quiet Quitting on the Rise in Japan

A survey in Japan has found a rising trend of people “quiet quitting” their jobs, where workers simply do as instructed, with no sign of motivation or wanting to get ahead in their careers.

Employment information provider Mynavi, which conducted the survey in November 2024, found that out of the 3,000 valid responses received from full-time employees aged from 20 to 59, 44.5% stated they were quiet quitting.

Workers in their twenties had the highest percentage of quiet quitters at 46.7%. However, there were more than 40% in all age groups, indicating that this is a widespread trend across generations.

Of those who stated they were quiet quitters, 57.4% felt they were gaining something from it. The most common perceived advantage was the “sense of having one’s own time” at 23.0%, followed by “it feels the right amount of work for the amount of pay” with 13.3%.

When quiet quitters were asked if they intended to carry on as they were, the most common answer, at 29.7%, was that they wanted to “continue permanently.” When tallied together with those who said “for as long as possible” and “would somewhat like to,” the percentage of respondents intending to keep quiet quitting rose to 70.4%.

There was some difference in thinking by age though, as while 73.5% of people in their forties intending to “continue,” 35.4% of those in their twenties stated they “didn’t want to continue.”

Among the reasons for why people started quiet quitting were “there is no rewarding work at my current workplace” or that “my work isn’t appreciated, even if I bring it up in work evaluation meetings.” Others based their decision more on a sense of values, such as it being “a good balance between the amount of work and pay” and “I’m not interested in advancing my career.”

When mid-career recruiters were asked their opinion on quiet quitting, 38.9% were “in favor,” 6.8 percentage points higher than the 32.1% who stated they were “against.” Stating that “working styles that don’t require career advancement also need to be considered” and “some types of work cannot be done without those type of personnel,” it indicated that recruiters were more readily accepting of the situation.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)