I'm not sure if the practice of rotation exists in all of Japan's industries, both public and private, but here at the Kencho and at many of Japan's schools the end of March and beginning of April sees many employees moving from one area to another. It seems a strange practice to me, but with a few moments of thought on the issue, it seems like a very good practice in many ways. But rather than get into a discussion as to the merits and deficiencies of such a system I'll simply tell you what has gone on in the last few weeks over here.

In late February, I think it was, I leaned over to Ono-san and requested some time off during my parents visit. I requested five days off running from March 29th to April 2nd so that I could hang out with the parents and be free to leave town if we so decided. It wouldn't be a problem, I thought, because my schools wouldn't be in session then and all I'd be doing was sitting here at the Kencho, hogging the computer, and taking up space. And really, it wasn't a problem. Ono-san actually seemed happy that I was finally taking some of my vacation time.
"But," he said pointing to the week on the calendar I was holding and had just requested off, "we will have party this week." And he indicated that we would be having two parties, one for those people who would be leaving and another for those who would be replacing them. At this, confusion set in, but I had heard about teachers moving from school to school and came to the conclusion that it must be the same for these government workers.
"Ah," I said and asked, "Who will be leaving?" figuring that there was only a month to go and that surely those who would be leaving would know by now.
"We don't know yet," he answered.
This baffled me a bit and I asked the next question in my line of interrogation. "Ono-san," I began, "will you be leaving?" I was not happy at the prospect of this kind and very helpful man whom I had learned to communicate with leaving the desk next to mine.
"Perhaps," was all he said and we left it at that.
So I told him to let me know about the parties when he knew more and went back to my book.

A few weeks later Ono leaned over to me and pointed to the calendar on my desk. "Mah-kahs," he said, "party will be this day and this day," and he pointed to March 29th and April 2nd. "Can you come?"
So I gave it some thought and decided that I would commit to the first one but not the second. I'd let him know about that one as I was thinking of the possibility of mom, dad, and me being out of town somewhere.
But I did, again, take the opportunity to ask him about those who might leave. "Do you know, yet, who will be leaving?" I asked.
"Not yet," was the answer.

And it wasn't until Friday, March 26th, that the office found out who would be leaving. And what makes this so surprising to me is that March 31st would be their last day in the old office and April 1st would be their first one in the new office. That was the very next week!
So the information came down the chain of command and Ono leaned over to me, "Mah-kahs," he said, "I will be leaving." At this I actually felt a tinge of sadness and anger. "Why would he be leaving?" I thought, "He's helped me so much and I have no idea how I will get by without him!"
But these thoughts really had barely formed in my head before he said, "Yamaki-san," aka. my supervisor, "will also be leaving."
WHAT!!!?
As I sat at my desk I began to wonder if I would be regretting, at some point in the near future, my decision to recontract. Yamaki and Ono were the two guys who I spent that first day with. They had showed me the way to my apartment, taken me to the grocery store and liquor store, had always informed me of the goings-on at the Kencho, and Ono had taken me by car to five of my six schools before school started way back in August just so I would know what they looked like and where they were. I was not happy about the prospect of these two leaving the office.
But change is inevitable and after a few minutes I figured, "What the hell? Time to move on, I guess." And then the realization that my new supervisor and Ono's replacement would probably turn out to be two great individuals that I'd grow to like hit me and I figured things would be ok.
And as it turns out my new supervisor is Watanabe-san. Watanabe was the guy who picked my up that first day in Kofu when the bus dropped us newbies off. He was in a position between that of Yamaki and Ono and although he is a rather quite guy, he is very nice and has asked my opinion on things regarding work in the past. He's also a baseball fan.
There appears to be no replacement for Watanabe at this time and his desk is vacant. I'm not sure what's going on there, but it's none of my concern.
Ono's replacement is a young woman named Hiroko. She seems very nice but her English isn't very good and I think we will struggle at times. But she smiles a lot, and seems willing to talk to me so that is good.

I work in an office of about 20 people and 8 of them left. So the office has many new faces in it and although I did miss the welcome party and the chance to meet them all in a more casual environment, they all seem like nice people who are happy to be here. I haven't actually met them all but we smile and say "good morning" and I am sure that things will run smoothly.
Turns out that Ono went a couple towns over to Yamanashi-shi to work in a school district branch building over there. And Yamaki is now working for the new "Sight Seeing" division as he calls it. He will be in charge of advertising for the Yamanashi tourist industry. So I told him that I would tell all of you to visit Yamanashi and tell all your friends how wonderful it is so that they will come too. He thanked me for that.

Getting back to the whole issue of this moving thing, it appears that they move offices and positions but they don't move far enough to warrant a move of family and house. And many of them, at least the few I talked to, seem to like the system. Yamaki told me that one or two years in an office is too short, that four years is too long, thereby making three years at one position the optimal time. He had been in this office for four years and was ready for a change. And when I mentioned that many (I wasn't confident enough to say most) Americans spend most of their adult lives at one job and that we don't have a regulated system of rotation among our jobs (promotion and demotion coming at different times for different people and not really being the same as this system over here), he told me that many people must get bored and tired of the same job year after year. And I have to admit that I agree with him.
So there you are. Something about Japan you probably didn't know. I didn't.