Job-quitting Agencies: As User Numbers Increase, Hidden Risks are a Concern

Editorial

15:01 JST, October 31, 2025

Telling one’s employer that one is quitting is a daunting task. If possible, one might rather avoid meeting them face-to-face. A job-quitting agency catering to such needs has come under police investigation.

The nature of these services — communicating an employee’s resignation intent to their employer on their behalf — could carry legal risks. It is hoped that police will thoroughly investigate the actual practices.

The Metropolitan Police Department searched the operating company of a job-quitting agency called Momuri and two law firms on suspicion of violating the Attorneys Law. The operating company is suspected of referring legal negotiations, such as those regarding problems that could arise between users of the service and their employers, to lawyers, and receiving rewards for such referrals.

The law prohibits “unauthorized legal practice” — in which individuals without a lawyer’s license make referrals to lawyers for the purpose of earning compensation — and “unauthorized collaboration with unqualified parties” — in which lawyers accept client referrals from unqualified individuals.

This is because lawyers may prioritize the referrer’s intentions over those of the client, potentially distorting legally grounded judgments.

The services a job-quitting agency can provide are fundamentally limited to notifying the employer of the user’s intention to resign. Negotiations over unpaid wages, retirement payment and other matters that arise in the course of this service are considered “legal issues,” which operators without a lawyer’s license are not allowed to handle.

Thus, Momuri is believed to have regularly referred its users to affiliated law firms. The lawyers also likely benefited from a steady stream of clients. It must be said that this undermines trust in the legal profession.

Among users of Momuri’s service, there was a case in which a person asked a lawyer to whom they had been referred to negotiate for unpaid wages, but the lawyer did not deal with the matter sufficiently. The person paid the lawyer’s initial fees, but they could not receive wages and were advised by the lawyer to consult a labor standards inspection office.

The use of job-quitting agency services has rapidly expanded in recent years, particularly among young people, with over 100 such agencies reportedly now operating nationwide. Data indicates that 16.6% of job changers have used such services.

Common reasons for using them included “being pressured not to resign” and “a working environment in which it was difficult to bring up resignation.”

It has long been suspected that the practices of some agencies could amount to unauthorized legal practice, prompting warnings from the Tokyo Bar Association. Agencies other than Momuri also need to check on their own whether there are any problems with their operations.

Employees may sometimes have no choice but to use such services, such as when facing harassment for attempting to quit. However, they should recognize that using these agency services simply because they want to quit in an easy manner or because they cannot speak up themselves could be perceived as disrespectful to their workplaces.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Oct. 31, 2025)