In Japan, working as a freelancer might have made you seem like a maverick in the past, since the nation's labor culture has traditionally embraced stability and life-time employment.
Yet the situation has changed greatly in recent years, with the country promoting more flexible working styles and encouraging people to take on second jobs. Meanwhile, the spread of remote work due to the pandemic has made it easier for individuals to casually work in their spare time.
Despite more people pursuing a new working style, business practices pertaining to freelancers are still quite old fashioned — verbal agreements are often the norm — and regularly create problems, including on compensation, prompting the government to work on new legal protections for them.