‘Meant to Drive You Insane’: Redditors Expose the Dark Reality of Japan’s ‘Banishment Rooms’

A Reddit user recently shared a viral post regarding the work culture of Japan that went viral. "In Japan some bosses make you stay at work doing nothing so you quit", the user wrote on the subreddit r/NoStupidQuestions, adding, "How is that even a punishment it just sounds kinda chill."

However, boredom turned into something unpleasant in the answers.

One user cut through the fantasy. “You can't do anything, though,” the user stated. “No phone, no computer, no books, nothing. You are expected to sit and stare at the wall for 8 hours. It's meant to drive you insane so you quit.” they added.

They were discussing setups similar to Japan's "banishment rooms," or oidashibeya, in which undesired staff members sit in isolation with nothing to do until they resigned.

Another Redditor, however, did not talk about Japan at all. Rather, the user shared their own experience with workplace boredom. The user talked about a job from years ago where they hardened wireless networks and waited months for a penetration testing team to sign off on their work. They had no new projects until the old one passed and no backlog to clear.

The user said that they could spend "as much as 6 months per year" in the workplace with no actual tasks. "The boredom was something else," they stated, adding that after only a few weeks, it had become so "soul-crushing" that they had to leave the job.

Another user drew the feeling from a different place: a week-long stay in a psychiatric facility. No phone, no streaming; just food, sleep, and occasional classes. "It was relaxing for all of about 2 or 3 days and then you just run out of thoughts to think," they said.

They only got some relief when they made friends, but many people there were not in a state to talk much. Being forced to do nothing feels different when you cannot choose how to fill the gap, they indicated.

One user recalled working nightly security in an empty shack in 2002, sometimes with a radio and no gun, no company. Just a task of walking a circle every hour and tapping a stick on checkpoints to ensure they were still awake. “The boredom was indescribable and the pay was minimum wage,” the user said, and admitted they could not work there for long.

In Japan, "banishment rooms" and "window-seat" roles have been criticized for using shame and emptiness to push people away rather than firing them directly.

Workers get moved to isolated desks or bare rooms, stripped of real tasks or given pointless ones, and left there until the silence feels heavier than a pink slip. On paper, they still have jobs. In practice, they sit, wait, and count tiles.