MonkeyBoy wrote:

> I was working for a small software engineering company (A Japanese
> company of about 12 people) since June.  The owner ("CEO" as he likes
> to be called) was always late paying employees' salaries.  As of
> September he stopped paying salary altogether and doesn't even show up
> at the office.
> 
> Anyway, after two weeks, not receiving my salary for September I quit
> and went to the labor bureau and they had me write an official letter
> and sent it by registered mail.  Essentially it gave him one week to
> pay up - that means until tomorrow, Oct 31st.  If he doesn't (which I
> do not think he will) I'm supposed to go back and they will try to
> contact him and find out what the story is.
> 
> My next course of action, I was told, would be to bring him to small
> claims court.  So, I'd like to know if anyone here has actually been
> through this process before and if there is any advice which you might
> have.

The generally accepted explanation of Japanese law is that judges are 
the bottom of the law school graduates barrel.  They get the longest 
hours and lowest pay of the prosecutor (kenji) / independent bengoshi / 
judge (hanji) classifications that the law program produces).  Small 
claims court judges are the bottom of the judges barrel along with 
family court judges whose main job is to return juvenile delinquents 
back to the streets until they kill someone and everyone agrees that 
they can be locked up.

My (host national) brother-in-law just went through much of the same 
with a foreign employer which went ahead and sold itself to a Japanese 
concern during the one month period.  The so-called President took a 
powder and the Japanese company sent a letter to the court saying 
something like "we bought the company, not it's previous problems".  The 
judge basically said "Za nen, na ..." and issued a letter saying it 
would be a good idea if all three parties met and negotiated.  As if 
they would have been in court if that sort of thing worked ...

As we say in the securities industry "your results may be different." 
As a long time resident of Wa, I say "fat chance."

CL