---

Why Do Myanmar Workers Leave? Data-Based Causes and Practical Points for Retention Support

While hiring of Myanmar talent continues to expand across manufacturing, nursing care, construction, food service, and many other workplaces, hiring managers increasingly report cases such as “we finally hired someone, but they quit right away” or “they were motivated at the interview, yet left within a few months.”

According to Statistics on Foreign Residents in Japan from the Immigration Services Agency of Japan (figures released at the end of June 2025), the number of residents of Myanmar nationality has reached about 135,000, roughly 3.9 times the approximately 35,000 at the end of 2020 over five years. With acceptance expanding so rapidly, many companies have not kept pace in building retention support systems.

Behind turnover are not only general factors such as wages and working conditions, but also Myanmar-specific culture, religious views, family relationships, and ways of gathering information. This article unpacks the reasons Myanmar talent leaves from both data and cultural background, and explains the judgment criteria and concrete retention measures hiring managers should keep in mind in practice.

Looking at Reasons Myanmar Talent Leaves Through Data

Workplace surveys and interviews with accepting organizations repeatedly report figures such as the following.

  • While the within-one-year turnover rate for Technical Intern Training and Specified Skilled Worker employees overall is said to average about 15–20% across industries, field surveys limited to Myanmar talent report rates around 30%
  • Remittances to family often amount to about 30–40% of monthly income, so the moment take-home pay feels lower than expected, consideration of leaving tends to follow directly
  • Field interviews indicate that about 70–80% of eligible employees hope to return home for Thingyan (the water festival) in mid-April
  • Reports say information on better job offers shared via SNS can spread within hours to about a day to hundreds of people in hometown communities
  • Some companies that introduced regular one-on-one meetings saw turnover improve by around 10 percentage points compared with before introduction

These figures vary by company, but they show that complex factors are at work that cannot be explained by simplifying turnover as “insufficient Japanese ability.” For Myanmar talent, the following factors often overlap.

  • Responsibility to remit money to family and relatives, and the strong focus on income that comes with it
  • Gaps between life rhythms and values rooted in Theravada Buddhism and Japanese work practices
  • The speed of information sharing within hometown communities (mobility toward better job offers)
  • Difficulty taking leave for religious observances, fasting periods, and Thingyan
  • Friction between a culture that values indirect expression of intent and a Japanese style of direct instruction

These cannot be resolved by a single company’s efforts alone. Still, if pre-hire and post-hire processes are designed with this background in mind, turnover risk can be reduced substantially.

Cultural Background Behind Why Myanmar Talent Leaves

Religion and Life Rhythms

About 90% of Myanmar’s population is said to be Theravada Buddhist, and temple visits and acts of making merit (dana) are deeply rooted in daily life. Full moon days (poya days) can also carry special meaning depending on the region. If, without knowing this background, a sudden request for leave is taken as mere selfishness, the person may feel “not understood,” which can lead to leaving.

Thingyan is Myanmar’s New Year and, for many people, the most important time of year to return home and gather with family. As noted above, data indicate that about 70–80% of eligible employees hope for leave, so rather than rejecting requests outright, putting a shift-adjustment mechanism in place in advance is a first step in retention support.

Consideration for Meals and Fasting

A certain number of Myanmar workers are Muslim, and consideration for halal options and prayer times may be needed. Even among Buddhists, some people refrain from eating meat during particular periods. Preparing meal arrangements in the company cafeteria or break room and a consultation channel for religious considerations works less as a direct anti-turnover measure than as an accumulation of day-to-day “ease of working.”

Remittances to Family and Economic Pressure

Many Myanmar workers finance large travel costs and intermediary fees through borrowing before coming to Japan, and after arrival, remitting money to family becomes a central purpose of their lives. As noted above, many allocate about 30–40% of monthly income to remittances. When actual pay differs from the take-home amount they expected, even legitimate deductions under the system can easily breed a sense of having been “deceived,” which often becomes a direct trigger for leaving or changing jobs.

Carefully explaining pay slips in the worker’s native language or in plain Japanese, and stating deduction items (social insurance premiums, housing costs, dormitory fees, and so on) in writing in advance, are basics of preventing trouble. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare also provides information for employers on proper labor management of foreign workers (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare page on measures for employing foreign nationals).

The Network Strength of Hometown Communities

Myanmar talent has very strong ties through hometown communities on SNS (Facebook and chat apps), and information on pay and workplace conditions is said to be shared with hundreds of people within hours to about a day. Reputation such as “that company pays overtime properly” or “the dormitory there is old” directly affects both hiring and retention. Conversely, raising satisfaction among current employees can become the strongest publicity for the next round of hiring—a point hiring managers often overlook.

Turnover Caused by Misaligned Workplace Communication

In Myanmar workplace culture, people strongly tend to avoid direct disagreement or expressing dissatisfaction to superiors. It may seem similar to Japan’s “read-the-air” culture, but it is actually different. It is not uncommon for someone to answer “I’m fine” on the surface while quietly pursuing a job change.

Japanese supervisors often feel the person “quit suddenly,” but in many cases warning signs had been present for weeks or months and only the indirect signals were missed. Even how names and honorifics are used affects psychological distance, so manners around name notation and forms of address are covered in more detail in a separate article (article on workplace communication with Myanmar talent); please refer to it as well.

With this cultural background in mind, holding regular one-on-one meetings and providing a consultation channel that can handle the worker’s native language are effective for spotting problems early. In practice, companies that introduced regular meetings have also reported turnover improvements of around 10 percentage points.

Common Questions from the Field

Hiring managers and site supervisors frequently raise concerns such as the following.

  • They were eager at the interview, but three months after joining they suddenly said they wanted to quit
  • Several Myanmar workers at the same workplace submitted resignations around the same time
  • They asked for time off for religious reasons, but we do not know how far we should accommodate
  • There are questions or complaints almost every month about take-home pay
  • Instruction in Japanese does not get through well, and work mistakes keep recurring
  • They suddenly asked to leave the dormitory and resign because of relationship trouble with a roommate

What these concerns share is that the “surface reason” for leaving often does not match the “underlying reason.” For example, behind a stated reason such as “Japanese is difficult,” other factors such as “opaque pay” or “insufficient consideration for religious observances” are not uncommon. What is needed is a stance of not judging by surface wording alone and digging into the background through multiple meeting opportunities.

Failure Patterns and How to Avoid Them

In hiring and retention support practice, failure patterns such as the following appear repeatedly.

  • Issuing the notice of working conditions in Japanese only and having the person join with only vague oral explanation. As a countermeasure, prepare explanatory materials in the native language or plain Japanese, and thoroughly confirm important points both in writing and orally
  • Taking a one-size-fits-all stance that “all leave is handled under uniform rules” toward religious and cultural observances. As a countermeasure, grasp major event dates (such as Thingyan) in advance and prepare flexible adjustment capacity while balancing peak periods
  • Giving instruction or reprimands one-way and making communication one-directional. Because dissatisfaction tends to build up indirectly, the risk of leaving without visible warning rises, so create mechanisms—regular meetings, surveys, and other channels—to surface opinions
  • Underestimating the influence of hometown communities and stopping at individual responses only. One person’s departure or dissatisfaction can spread across the hometown network within hours to about a day and lead to chain resignations, so keep a perspective of improving the workplace environment as a whole
  • Assigning people without aligning expectations at hire (pay, job content, leave systems). As a countermeasure, provide multiple explanation opportunities between the offer and start date and resolve questions as they arise

Points Hiring Managers Often Overlook

Among points hiring managers often overlook, first is the gap between “constraints by status of residence” and “actual life needs.” Statuses of residence such as Specified Skilled Worker and Technical Intern Training have institutional rules on job changes, returning home, and family accompaniment, but proceeding with hiring without adequate understanding of the system makes mismatch with the person’s expectations more likely.

A stance of not shouldering everything in-house and actively using external public desks ultimately contributes to improving turnover rates.

Practical Retention Support to Prevent Reasons Myanmar Talent Leaves

Criteria for judging retention support can be organized largely into three areas: “systems,” “daily life,” and “relationships.”

  • Systems: Whether work restrictions, renewal timing, and whether job changes are allowed are accurately understood by type of status of residence and can be explained clearly to the person. Misunderstanding the system can lead not only to turnover but also to the risk of unauthorized work
  • Daily life: How far elements that directly affect quality of daily life—consideration for religious observances and meals, dormitory and housing conditions, access to remittance means—have been put in place. The company need not bear everything, but at minimum whether there is a place to consult should be treated as a baseline
  • Relationships: Whether there are regular meeting opportunities, systems that can pick up indirect signs of dissatisfaction, and trust-building with hometown communities. Follow-up meetings at milestones such as three months, six months, and one year after joining are especially effective for spotting early signs of leaving; companies that introduced them have also reported turnover improvements of around 10 percentage points

Turning these judgment criteria into an internal checklist and confirming them at each phase—pre-hire, post-hire, and retention follow-up—is a shortcut to improving turnover rates.

When using this as internal material, it helps to visualize the following flow.

  • Confirm type of status of residence and work conditions (refer to Immigration Services Agency of Japan information)
  • Prepare materials explaining working conditions and pay deduction items (native-language support)
  • Interview on religious observances and lifestyle habits and share internally
  • Set a post-hire follow-up meeting schedule (three months, six months, one year)
  • Publicize consultation channels (internal contacts, Hello Work, and others)

Sharing this flow among the hiring manager, site supervisor, and the worker themselves helps prevent turnover risk in advance from both the systems and daily-life sides.

Practical Checklist

  • Have you explained the contents of the notice of working conditions and employment contract in the native language or plain Japanese and confirmed the person’s understanding?
  • Can you explain to the person the rules on work restrictions, renewal timing, and job changes by type of status of residence?
  • Is there a mechanism for leave and meal arrangements that considers religious observances (such as Thingyan) and dietary restrictions?
  • Have deduction items on pay slips (social insurance premiums, dormitory fees, and so on) been stated in writing in advance?
  • Is there a system to conduct follow-up meetings at the three-month, six-month, and one-year milestones after joining?
  • Have you shared contact details for a consultation channel that can handle the native language, or for external support desks such as Hello Work?
  • Are you using reputation and word of mouth within hometown communities as hints for improving the workplace environment?
  • For people who left in the past year, have you dug into resignation reasons through multiple meetings and kept records?

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1. What is the most common reason Myanmar talent leave their jobs? A. It cannot be reduced to a single reason, but three factors often combine: a lack of transparency around pay and deductions, insufficient consideration for religious observances, and communication structures in which indirect dissatisfaction is hard to surface. Field surveys have also reported turnover rates within the first year of employment reaching around 30%, making early action important.

Q2. How far should employers go in accommodating leave requests for religious reasons? A. Rather than setting a one-size-fits-all rule, it is preferable to identify major observance dates in advance and adjust case by case against busy and slow periods. When reviewing leave provisions in work rules, confirm related laws via the e-Gov Law Search and document them as internal rules so operations stay consistent.

Q3. How can employers detect early signs of turnover? A. In addition to regular one-on-one meetings and surveys, it is effective to build a system for indirectly checking the situation with multiple employees, given how quickly information spreads within same-country communities. Many sudden resignation notices are preceded by warning signs weeks to months earlier.

Q4. How can public agency support be used? A. The Immigration Services Agency of Japan and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare publish information on systems and employment management, and Hello Work also has consultation desks for foreign employment. When it is difficult to decide in-house alone, we recommend actively using these primary sources and public counters.

Reasons Myanmar talent leave are not a single factor; culture, religion, economic background, and communication style intertwine in complex ways. For hiring managers, accurately understanding institutional rules is essential, and deepening understanding of daily customs and values while building regular follow-up systems supports long-term retention.

If handling this in-house is difficult, or if you want more concrete advice on pre-hire system checks and retention support design, please feel free to contact the Foreign Talent Insights inquiry desk (Foreign Talent Insights Inquiry).

Related Articles: Practical Topics Worth Reviewing Together

Please also review practical articles on related themes as needed.