For more than two years, he has come to a small room, taken a seat and then passed the time reading newspapers, browsing the Web and poring over engineering textbooks he dug up from his college days. He files a report on his activities at the end of each day.
Sony, Tani's employer of 32 years, consigned him to this room because they can't get rid of him. Sony had eliminated his position at the Sony Sendai Technology Center, which in better times produced magnetic tapes for videos and cassettes. But Tani, 51, refused to take an early retirement offer from Sony in late 2010 - his prerogative under Japanese labor law.
So there he sits in what is called the "chasing-out room." He spends his days there, with about 40 other holdouts.
"I won't leave," Tani said. "Companies aren't supposed to act this way. It's inhumane."
The standoff between workers and management at the Sendai factory underscores an intensifying battle over hiring and firing practices in Japan, where lifetime employment has long been the norm and where large-scale layoffs remain a social taboo, at least at Japan's largest corporations.
Sony wants to change that, and so does Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. As Japan's economic recovery sputters, reducing the restraints on companies has become even more important to Abe's economic plans. He wants to loosen rigid rules on job terminations for full-time staff.
Economists say bringing flexibility to the labor market in Japan would help struggling companies streamline bloated work forces to better compete in the global economy. Fewer restrictions on layoffs could make it easier for Sony to leave loss-ridden traditional businesses and concentrate resources on more innovative, promising ones.
"I have a single wish for Japan's electronics sector, and that's labor reform," said Atul Goyal, a technology analyst at Jefferies & Co.
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