Japan hasn’t exactly had the best track record when it comes to healthy work cultures, especially considering they have the term ‘karoshi’, which means ‘death by overwork’, to describe and categorise the many deaths that have happened following their intense work culture.
Nonetheless, one Japanese company is now making waves for giving their employees paid leaves for mental health over a particular issue-the marriage of their idols.
Shizen Tsurumi, the founder, and president of Tokyo-based creative agency, Hiroro, took to his Twitter account to showcase this new initiative, which entitles his employees to paid leave days when their favourite idol gets married or retires from the entertainment industry.
According to Sora News 24, the system, called the Oshi (community term for idol) Vacation System, entitles an employee 10 days of paid leave when their ultimate oshi retires, and three days paid leave for the retirement of a secondary or lower-ranked oshi.
They will also get an additional 10 days of paid leave for when their ultimate oshi gets married. They even have the option of splitting their leave between the announcement of their idol’s engagement and the days leading up to the wedding ceremony.
Apparently, there were two events that prompted Tsurumi to implement the new system.
Nana Mizuki
The first instance was when a model employee lacked focus and was uncooperative when Nana Mizuki, an anime voice actress and singer announced her wedding. The second incident was when another employee was feeling sad that their favourite idol had announced their retirement.
Tsurumi told the latter employee to take some time off to mourn and grieve and decided to officially extend that same courtesy to everyone in the company.
This system will also allow employees to request time off to attend their oshi’s concerts and meet-and-greet events, and even allows fast-tracking of approvals for those last minute ‘surprise’ performances that are only announced hours before they take place.
I bet any idol fan would enjoy the added advantage of not having to worry about work when their favorite oshi is in town! This truly is a remarkable initiative.
What do you think about this? Let us know in the comment section.
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