I worked there under a very common payment model called みなし残業 (minashi-zangyou), meaning my contract gave me a minimum monthly pay which assumed a certain amoun

I worked there under a very common payment model called みなし残業 (minashi-zangyou), meaning my contract gave me a minimum monthly pay which assumed a certain amount of overtime (40 hours a month in my case, meaning no additional pay was provided until surpassing 40 hours overtime in a month). This was really awful because I could be made to feel guilty for not staying late, and superiors had no qualms about keeping me. I naively accepted the contract (it was a permanent contract, highly sought after) and at some point realized that the pay was not at all worth it (about 42k a year). This was not the kind of job I could sleep at, either!