1.
exploitative company; sweatshop company; abusive employer
A company notorious for overworking employees, paying inadequate wages (especially for overtime), engaging in harassment, or otherwise mistreating its workers. A widely used social term in contemporary Japan.
ブラック企業に勤めている。
I work for an exploitative company.
彼はブラック企業を辞めてフリーランスになった。
He quit an exploitative company and became a freelancer.
長時間労働と残業代未払いはブラック企業の典型だ。
Long working hours and unpaid overtime are typical of exploitative companies.
就職活動ではブラック企業を避けるために口コミを調べた。
During my job hunt, I researched online reviews to avoid exploitative companies.
A widely used contemporary term composed of the English loanword ブラック (black, used here metaphorically as "shady" or "bad") + 企業 (company, enterprise). Coined in the 2000s, it became common in the 2010s alongside growing awareness of labor abuses, overwork, and death-by-overwork (過労死).
COMMON COLLOCATIONS:
- ブラック企業に勤める: to work at an exploitative company
- ブラック企業を辞める: to quit an exploitative company
- ブラック企業大賞: "Black Company Grand Prize" (an annual naming-and-shaming award)
- ブラック企業の特徴: characteristics of a black company
SIMILAR WORDS:
- ホワイト企業: white company — the opposite; a company with good working conditions
- ブラックバイト: part-time job with exploitative conditions (especially targeting students)
- 過労死: death from overwork — the extreme consequence associated with such companies
TYPICAL SIGNS:
Commonly cited signs of a ブラック企業 include unpaid overtime (サービス残業), very high employee turnover, power harassment, and impossible quotas. The term carries strong negative connotations and is used both in casual complaints and in serious journalism.