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Bandai Namco, a leading Tokyo-based game developer, has been accused of adopting a traditional Japanese strategy to reduce its workforce by sending employees to so-called “expulsion rooms” (oidashi beya), where they are given no work.
This allegations come following the cancellation of several high-profile game projects, including titles related to the One Piece and Naruto franchises, sources familiar with the matter have revealed.
Since April, Bandai Namco Studios Inc., a subsidiary of the company, has moved approximately 200 of its 1,300 employees into these expulsion rooms, Bloomberg reported.
In these rooms, employees are left without work-related tasks, often pressuring them to voluntarily leave the company.
Nearly 100 workers have resigned since being transferred, with more departures expected in the coming months, according to sources who spoke to Bloomberg on the condition of anonymity.
This approach is not uncommon in Japan, where labor laws are stringent. Coupled with the societal norms followed in the country, make it extremely difficult for companies to outright fire workers.
In the past, employees whose roles became redundant but couldn’t be dismissed were designated as part of the ‘madogiwazoku’, or “tribe that sits by the windows.”
These workers were often placed by the windows with no real work, where they would pass their time reading newspapers or doing other trivial tasks.
However, as Japan’s economy tanked slowly and with the challenges of global competition arising, many companies had more redundant employees than they could place by the windows.
This gave rise to the ‘oidashi beya’, also known as the banishment or expulsion room. Unlike the relatively benign ‘madogiwazoku’, employees sent to expulsion rooms are typically placed in windowless rooms and given little to no work.
The oidashi beya is a particularly harsh method, especially in Japan’s collectivist culture, where ostracism from the group is a serious form of punishment.
Despite the growing number of resignations, Bandai Namco has denied that it is using these expulsion rooms to force employees out.
In a statement, the company explained, “Our decisions to discontinue games are based on comprehensive assessments of the situation. Some employees may need to wait a certain amount of time before they are assigned their next project, but we do move forward with assignments as new projects emerge. There is no organization like an ‘oidashi beya’ at Bandai Namco Studios designed to pressure people to leave voluntarily.”
The situation at Bandai Namco arose after the company canceled or paused several major game projects.
In addition to shelving titles related to One Piece and Naruto, the company also canceled the mobile game Tales of the Rays and will discontinue the online game Blue Protocol in January 2025.
The company has faced significant financial pressure due to a post-pandemic reduction in consumer time spent on gaming, leading to ¥21 billion ($141 million) in write-downs over the last three quarters of 2023.
Bandai Namco’s actions are part of a broader trend in the gaming industry, as other companies have also been forced to trim their ranks.
Square Enix recently canceled several loss-making smartphone games, while Sony shut down its online game Concord just two weeks after its release.
Source: Bloomberg, Japan Inter Cultural
