Japanese ‘Princess Company’ offers compansionate leave for heartbreak
Just in time for Japanese princesses about to suffer heartbreak at Valentines Day…
Japanese firm offers heartache leave for staff
Jan 28, 2008 | Reuters—Tokyo-based Hime & Company, which also gives staff paid time off to hit the shops during sales season, says heartache leave allows staff to cry themselves out and return to work refreshed. “Not everyone needs to take maternity leave but with heartbreak, everyone needs time off, just like when you get sick,” CEO Miki Hiradate…more…
What the Reuters report doesn’t cover, which your can read in the machine translation of their website, are blindingly obvious points about Hime & Company :
. . . –>”Hime” in Japanese means “princess” and Hime & Company caters to 30-something Japanese who want to be pink-and-bling princesses.
. . . –>Hime & Company is just group of six unmarried Japanese women who are working at near minimum wage so they can live their princess dreams in a rhinestone encrusted “Castle” (office and shop).
. . . –>The boss, Miki Hiradate, is one hell of a PR agent who goes to any length to just get in the news as you can see the company’s press webpage.
According to Ms. Hiradate’s blog at HimeClub.com, she is a “panic” from all overseas calls in English since the Reuters story hit the news rooms around the world. 
As you see in the photo on the right, “Princess” Tate Hitoshi, the office manager having a panic attack on the 30th when the French newspaper and media outlet “Libration” came to the princess company’s pink “Castle” to make a TV news segment about the company. The Hime & Company blog reports that they were, “more than nervous,” being interviewed by alien (foreign) media.
In other interviews as shown below, Princess CEO Hiradate explained that the Hime & Company staff can also take off a half day twice a year for “sales shopping leave” to hunt for end-of-the-season fashion bargains.
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