According to a new report in Nikkei BizTech, Microsoft has laid off 34 employees in the Xbox division of its Japanese offices. The layoffs apparently caused a commotion among the workers because of differences in business practices between Japan and the United States.

According to the article, the Xbox division staff in Japan, which consists of approximately 200 employees, was called to a meeting at the company's Tokyo office on March 20. The staff was then told by its new division head, Par Singh, that the sales of the Xbox in Japan had been extremely disappointing, and that the company will be forcing early retirement on a number of its workers.

The employees were then told to check their e-mail inboxes, in which 34 of the workers received a notice to pack their belongings and go to the conference room. The passageway to the conference room had security guards protecting all the elevators and emergency exits. The terminated employees could use the restroom only if they were accompanied by one of the retained employees. According to one of the employees who was cut, it felt as though they were treated like criminals.

Upon reaching the conference room, the terminated employees were told to wait for their turn to meet with their supervisor and the human resources manager. When their turn came, the terminated employees were told that they were being laid off because their positions had been eliminated.

While Japanese companies no longer hire employees for life, it is still customary to retain employees as long as they are working hard and the company has the financial resources to support them. The employees naturally reacted badly to the abrupt layoff by Microsoft. But due to the forceful nature of the company's security measures, all 34 terminated employees had no choice but to accept their premium severance pay and leave the company.

The Xbox division in Japan has undergone a number of management changes since January, when division head Hirohisa Oura was transferred to Microsoft's headquarters in the US. R&D division head Toshiyuki Miyata--recruited from Sony Computer Entertainment--was also dismissed from his position. The movement toward layoffs and stricter controls of the Xbox division by the US headquarters seems to be connected to the recent declines in Microsoft Japan's business performance. Microsoft Japan will be operating under former vice president Michael Rawding starting in July, which will be the first time since the division was founded in 1986 that a non-Japanese president will be taking the seat.