If you plan to work in Japan, you should keep an eye out for “Black Companies” – the well-known nightmare for every job seeker.

In this article, we will provide some basic information about Black Companies in Japan and some tips to help you identify whether one corporation is black or not.

1. What Are Black Companies?

Black Company is a term used in Japan to describe companies that treat their employees badly, have poor working conditions, and violate labor standards.

Working for these black companies, employees may typically suffer from little or no overtime pay, power/sexual harassment, little or no work/personal life balance, etc.

2. Characteristics of Black Company

Below are a few pointers to help you determine if a particular company is a "black company."

Also, read carefully the basic information related to the job offer, such as required working hours, salary, paid vacations.

・High Job Turnover Rate

The first and most prominent characteristic of a "black company" is the constant fluctuation of its workforce.

New employees quit their jobs shortly after joining the company because they cannot tolerate the terrible working environment. Many are hired, but only a few are able to adapt to the terrible working environment. The rest end up self-dismissing under psychological pressure.

However, instead of fixing the problems in its work system, the company tends to continually hire new people, which leads to a constant cycle of hiring.

Of course, not all companies that hire regularly and continuously are "black" company. It may be because the company has a good growth rate and is expanding in size.

・Short Recruitment Process

Unlike other countries, the hiring process in Japan is not short and simple. It often involves many steps and multiple tests and interviews.

Therefore, any company that accepts applicants without going through all the steps is most likely a black company.

It is especially important for international students to spend additional time in the job search process. In some cases, some international students follow the temptation of "easy job offers" and end up working for black-owned companies because their visas have only a few days left to expire.

・Abnormally Low or High Pay

Each industry has different standard salaries. If a company you are applying to offers a salary that is significantly lower than average compared to other companies, it may be a company that does not value its employees correctly.

In addition, there are also companies that offer surprisingly higher salaries than normal. However, be wary of these companies as well. While they may seem attractive at first glance, do not accept them as they appear on the surface, as there may be problems behind those surprising numbers that you have not yet discovered!

3. How to Identify a Black Company？

To know if a company is a "black company," you can make a determination based on information about the company.

This includes employment information about the employee's work/personal life balance, salary and benefits, job security and promotions, management and work culture.

In addition to research based on information disclosed by a company, there are several other ways to find further clues about a company. We will introduce them!

・Business Evaluation Websites

One of the most practical ways to learn more about a company is to read what its employees have to say about it on business reputation websites.

There are many such websites on the Internet and they are called 口コミ（くちこみ、 reviews). These websites are an accumulation of ratings of a company by its employees.

The main criteria used to evaluate these websites are: salary, working hours, paid time off, company strengths and weaknesses, work environment/culture, and promotions.

These are some business evaluation websites that will be helpful to you:

転職会議: This is a large-scale business evaluation website, with over 2 million members. You can view information of over 600,000 corporations in Japan and the assessments from other members about these corporations.

カイシャの評判: This is a business evaluation website operated by a well-known company, エン ・ ジャパン, with over 1 million review comments on businesses. This website is arranged conveniently for applicants to find information about corporations in every aspect.

Vorkers: This is a business evaluation website operated by Vorkers Joint Stock Company. More than 50,000 companies evaluated on this website, and in particular, the evaluation criteria are indicated in charts for readers to easily visualize and compare.

キャリコネ: Like Vorkers, キャリコネ reviews businesses on many aspects and is represented in a chart form.

・Awards For Black Companies

Another way to find out if a company is a black business is through the annual Black Business Awards. This annual award was established in 2012 by a group of journalists, activists, and university professors.

The purpose of the award is to raise awareness among workers about the problem of black-owned businesses and to expose some of Japan's worst companies.

Factors such as long overtime hours, failure to pay overtime, harassment, and several issues related to exploitative working conditions will be considered when determining which companies receive awards. The winning companies will be publicly announced.

Becareful with Black Company!

Black companies are not uncommon in Japan, so extreme caution is required. Before joining a company, let’s use the methods described in this article to carefully assess the situation!