A foreign reader writes: “My husband is working for a company that has branches in Shinagawa, Narita and Ibaraki. He used to work at the Shinagawa branch, and then he was forced to move to the Narita branch. “The owner of the company only ...

An English teacher writes: “Recently, my company placed me on a three-month suspension from work, until five days before my fixed-period employment contract expires. As I am still employed, I cannot claim unemployment benefits, and this lengthy period makes it almost financially prohibitive to ...

Mr. A writes: “I’m a foreigner who has been married to a Japanese for more than 20 years. We bought a house in her name a few years ago, with a loan that’s due after 30 years. Every month I pay half of the ...

Reader KA writes: “In a recent Lifelines column (“All employees in Japan are entitled to paid leave, period,” Dec. 13) it was stated that all employees have the legal right to take paid vacation providing they meet certain basic criteria. Whilst that is legally ...

Reader A is employed by an agency and has been dispatched to a food processing company. The agency explained to A that she was not entitled to paid leave. However, other people directly employed by the food processing company enjoy 10 to 15 days ...

Reader MB was recently fired from a private language school he’d been working at for five years. “No reason was given when this was made known to me — I was, however, asked to teach the remaining four to six weeks of the current ...