Will "Tanshin-funin—Went Alone, Leaving Family Behind" End? -Part 1

Oct.18, 2023 [No. 113– 2023]

Ph.D., Mitsuhide SHIRAKI,
Professor Emeritus,
Waseda University

 

 Will "Tanshin-funin—Went Alone, Leaving Family Behind" End? -Part 1

Tanshin-funin is a style of work in which employees live alone and work at assigned locations, separate from their family. This custom has been quite common at Japanese companies, regardless of whether employees are assigned domestically or overseas. However, due to the work-style reforms brought about by the spread of remote working, evidently more companies are moving toward abolishing tanshin-funin as a rule or reducing it as much as possible.

Particularly in the case of expatriation, employees cannot return home to Japan as often as they would if they were transferred away from home but still in Japan. Therefore, they have to live separately from their family for several years. Furthermore, as most of the Japanese expatriates are male the families remaining in Japan have to live without a husband or father for a long time. Whereas more families with school-age children who are preparing to take entrance examinations tend to choose tanshin-funin, in families whose children are old enough to go to university or older, husbands and wives often go to the assignments together. The practice in which employees have brought some family members is called kazoku-ichibu-taido.

Let us look at the actual data. The research shows the following facts, although the data is a little old. (Note 1)

Whereas the percentage of tanshin-funin among Japanese expatriates is 31.3%, that of foreign expatriates in Japan is 3.9%. Clearly, the rate of tanshin-funin among Japanese expatriates is remarkably high. The regions where the rate of tanshin-funin among the Japanese is particularly high are Asia (41.0%) and Africa (57.9%).

Meanwhile, the combined rate of foreign expatriates in Japan who have brought entire their family (kazoku-zen'in-taido) and those who have brought some family members (kazoku-ichibu-taido) is 82.5%. This figure shows that bringing family is quite common and that tanshin-funin is extremely rare among foreign expatriates around the world.

It seems tanshin-funin is not particularly common in China and South Korea either. But how about the English-speaking regions? I asked Dr. J. S. Black, a recognized authority on workers on international assignments, about this some twenty years ago. He was then a professor at the University of Michigan's business administration and later moved to INSEAD Business School. He said that "There is no English word that directly corresponds to tanshin-funin, as there is no such concept. If we dare to translate the word into English, however, it still does not have the exact same nuance, but I think it would be 'business bachelor.'"

These findings suggest that tanshin-funin, in which employees live separately from their family or spouse to work at their assigned locations in different regions or countries, is a custom quite unique to Japanese companies and the Japanese people. It took root in Japanese society in the post-war period of high economic growth. I conclude my hypothesis as follows: Japan is now being forced to reconsider its unique custom of tanshin-funin under the current global spread of remote work and work-style reform.

Note 1: Based on "Results of the 6th Survey on Work and Life among Japanese Expatriates at Japanese-affiliated Companies Abroad" (JILPT Research Series No. 9) conducted by the Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training in September 2005 (the percentage of males in the survey was 98.1%) and "Result of Survey on Work and Life among Expatriates in Japan" conducted by Japan Institute of Labour in September 2001 (the percentage of males in the survey was 96.1%).