"Doing Only What's Asked": Half of Japanese Office Workers in Their 20s and 30s Engage in "Quiet Quitting"

Survey by Japanese Job Information Website
4 out of 10 Office Workers Experiencing "Quiet Quitting"
20.6% Cite "Indifference" as Main Reason

It has been found that 4 out of 10 office workers in Japan are experiencing "quiet quitting."

On April 13, the Japanese job information website Mynavi conducted an online survey of 3,000 regular employees aged 20 to 59, and 46.7% of respondents answered that they were engaging in "quiet quitting." This figure represents an increase of 2.2 percentage points compared to the previous year.

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"Quiet quitting" refers to a work style in which employees passively perform their assigned tasks rather than actively pursuing promotions or professional achievements. This atmosphere has spread recently as more young office workers have begun to prioritize work-life balance.

By age group, those in their 20s had the highest rate at 50.5%, followed by those in their 30s at 49.1%, those in their 50s at 46.7%, and those in their 40s at 42.3%.

The most common reason for choosing quiet quitting was "indifference" (20.6%). This was followed by "profit-oriented" (18.8%), "dissatisfaction with evaluation" (17.0%), and "incongruity" (16.0%).

As for whether respondents plan to continue this behavior, 73.7% answered affirmatively. The largest portion, 28.8%, said, "I will continue as long as I work," followed by "as long as possible" at 23.9%, and "to some extent" at 21.1%. This represents a slight increase compared to the previous year (70.4%).

By age group, those in their 50s had the highest intention to continue at 76.7%, while those in their 20s showed a relatively high rate of "not planning to continue" at 29.4%. However, over 70% in all age groups indicated their intention to continue.

The corporate environment was also found to have an impact. In a survey of mid-career recruitment personnel, transfers, relocations, or career choices tended to be determined more by company directives (41.9%) than by individual preference (12.4%).

It was also confirmed that companies are, to some extent, accepting this trend. Among mid-career recruitment managers, 42.2% said they supported "quiet quitting," which was higher than those opposed (30.1%). The support rate increased by 3.3 percentage points from the previous year.

By industry, the support rate was high in distribution and retail (56.5%) and transportation and logistics (47.4%), while the rate of opposition was relatively higher in trading companies (44.7%) and real estate and construction (33.8%).

Those in favor cited reasons such as "everyone has a work style that suits them" and "it is also necessary to have employees who diligently perform assigned work." On the other hand, opponents expressed concerns about "hindering corporate growth" and "negative impacts on productivity and organizational atmosphere."

Mynavi analyzed, "Quiet quitting does not necessarily limit career opportunities," and explained, "With the spread of side jobs, organization-centered work values are weakening, and various work styles are becoming more widespread." However, they pointed out, "In some cases, quiet quitting is chosen involuntarily due to external factors such as personnel transfers or evaluation systems."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.