✨ "Relocation/Accompanying Spouse": How to Not Let Go of Your Career ～Careers Only Women Can Walk: Chapter 3④ Life Stage Edition～

✨ Series Article "Careers Only Women Can Walk" Chapter 3④: "Relocation/Accompanying Spouse" How to Not Let Go of Your Career

One day, suddenly, your partner tells you.

"I've been transferred."

The notice comes one month in advance.
Without time to think carefully, you have to make decisions one after another.

Should I go with them, should they live apart, what should I do about my own job?

These are the words of one woman.

🏢 Why does the transfer system exist?

First, I want you to know the "company's true intentions" behind why the transfer system exists.

There are three main reasons why companies order transfers.

・Human resource development(letting employees experience various regions and tasks)
・Ensuring flexibility in personnel allocation(immediate replenishment for locations with vacancies)
・Prevention of stagnation and misconduct(avoiding long-term stays in the same department)

While these have the pretext of being "for the employees," the true intention is the exercise of the right to order personnel changes, meaning "the company wants to control its human resources freely."

In Japan's membership-based employment system, employees cannot refuse a transfer unless it falls under "unjust motives or purposes."
Companies have legally powerful personnel rights, and the transfer system is one of the means to exercise them.

And this system was designed based on the model of "the husband works and the wife is a full-time homemaker."
It is clear that this premise no longer fits the current era where dual-income households are the standard.

However, changes to the system are slow, and in the meantime, about 20,000 women each year are letting go of their careers due to transfers.

📊 Recent movements by companies

Corporate movements surrounding the transfer system have been changing over the past few years.

According to a survey by en-japan (2024), 68% of people in their 20s answered that they would consider resigning if they received a transfer notice.
The number of people who actually resigned due to a transfer has reached 31%.

19.4% of job seekers answered that they "will not apply to companies that have transfers," making it an era where the existence of a transfer system affects recruitment.

Against this background, progressive companies are moving forward with reviewing their transfer systems.

In 2023, Nitori HD introduced a "My Area" system with "no transfers and no reduction in compensation."
The abolition or reduction of the transfer system itself, and transfers that do not require moving by utilizing remote work, are also increasing.

However, these are still limited to some companies.

77.7% of companies with 500 or more employees still maintain a transfer system.
It is important to specifically check "what the reality of transfers is at this company" when job hunting or changing jobs.

⚖️ Three options and their respective realities

When a transfer is decided, there are generally three options.

① Go with them (accompanying)
The family can stay together.
But it often becomes necessary to quit or significantly change your job.
There is the burden of rebuilding childcare, medical care, and community from scratch in a new land.
You are also cut off from support from your parents' home, and often feel lonely.
The burden of childcare tends to be skewed toward women, and the same structure is often repeated at the transfer destination.

② Living apart
You can continue your own career.
However, it comes with the burden of handling childcare and housework alone, the double financial burden (home mortgage and the spouse's living expenses), and mental loneliness.
The younger the children, the greater the weight of this choice.

③ Having your partner change jobs
As an option to treat both careers equally, there is the choice for the partner themselves to move to a work style without transfers.
Whether you can discuss as a couple that "continuing to work at a company that assumes transfers" is not the only option.
Checking "whether the company has the possibility of transfers" before marriage is also a form of long-term career planning.

There is no "correct answer" for any of these choices.
But if you are thinking based on the premise that "of course I will follow," I want you to doubt that premise once.

🌍 The special issue of accompanying a spouse overseas

Among job transfers, accompanying a spouse on an overseas assignment involves particularly complex issues.

◆ Visa issues: Always check in advance

When accompanying a husband on an overseas assignment, the wife is issued a "dependent visa (accompanying visa)."

However, depending on the country or region, you may not be able to work with a dependent visa.
Also, there are cases where the husband's company prohibits the accompanying family from working.

According to a Mercer survey (2023, 299 companies), corporate policies regarding the employment of accompanying spouses vary, with some companies actively supporting employment while others prohibit it.

Before deciding to accompany, it is essential to check the husband's company policy and the local visa system.

To prevent a situation where you "could not work" later, I want you to perform this check before making the decision to accompany.

◆ Options for career development locally

Even in an environment where you can work, finding a job overseas is not easy.
There are language barriers, understanding of the local labor market, and differences in how work experience is evaluated.

However, overseas experience, improvement in language skills, and building international connections can be a major plus for your career after returning home.

As local options, you can consider:
・Continuing to be employed by a Japanese company through remote work
・Getting hired locally
・Working as a freelancer
・Working at a local Japanese company
・Maintaining skills through volunteer or NPO activities
and so on.

◆ The gap after returning home

After returning from an overseas assignment, there are cases where re-entering the Japanese labor market is difficult.
・Being able to explain what you were doing during the accompanying period
・Consciously creating opportunities to maintain and improve skills
・Making preparations while accompanying that look ahead to your career after returning home
are important.

💡 Things to check before accompanying

Before choosing to accompany, there are things I want you to check with your partner.
To avoid regrets after deciding to accompany, it is important whether you can ask these questions as a couple.

◆ Outlook on the transfer period
How long will the transfer last?
Where might the next transfer be? Whether there is an outlook or not changes your own career design.

If there is an outlook of "when you can return in a few years," you can design your career based on that.

◆ Sharing childcare
How will you share childcare at the transfer destination?
At the transfer destination, you will also lose support from your parents.

Whether there is a concrete commitment not just to "follow me," but to "share childcare together even at the transfer destination."

◆ Support for career return
If your career is interrupted while accompanying, how will your partner support your return afterward?

Whether you can ask each other not just "follow me," but "how can we protect your career together?"

◆ Plans after returning home or after the transfer ends
What state do you want to be in after the transfer ends?
What will you do during this period to achieve that?

By designing it now instead of vaguely thinking "I'll think about it when the accompanying period ends," your actions during the period will change.

◆ Visa and employment check for overseas assignments
As mentioned above, visa issues must be checked before deciding to accompany.

🌱 If You Choose to Accompany Your Partner: How to Not Let Go of Your Career

Choosing to accompany your partner does not mean you have to completely let go of your career.
There is a perspective that says, "Even if there is a gap, what you do during that time is what matters."

◆ The Choice of Remote Work or Freelancing
With the expansion of location-independent work styles, the possibilities for continuing your career while accompanying your partner have grown more than ever before.

Utilizing your skills from a previous job as a freelancer or remaining employed at the same company remotely are becoming realistic options.

◆ Acquiring Qualifications and Skills
There is the option to use the time while accompanying your partner as a period for "reskilling."
After interrupting your career as a relocating spouse, it is possible to challenge yourself in a new profession by obtaining qualifications.

◆ Taking Your Professional Network Online
There is the problem that your professional network gets reset every time you relocate.

By consciously maintaining connections through online communities and social media, you can cultivate a career network that transcends location.

◆ A Proactive Perspective: "What Will I Gain During This Period?"
By having the perspective of "What will I gain in this place?" rather than just "accompanying my partner," the experience of relocation can become a career asset.

There are examples where volunteering, community activities, and meeting people from different industries in a new region became turning points for a subsequent career.

🌿 I Want You to Question the Assumption That "Of Course I Will Follow"

The question of relocation and accompanying a partner arises only for women.
Men can think about their careers almost entirely on the assumption that "my wife will follow me."

This asymmetry is not an individual problem, but a problem of social structure where relocation systems have been designed with the assumption of a full-time housewife.

It is not about the assumption that "of course I will follow," but whether the two of you can hold the question of "which choice is best for the two of us."

I want you to design your own choices for yourselves, while understanding the essence of corporate relocation systems🌿