Lunar Workers Urgently Needed at 1,300 Yen/Hour. Benefits Include 'Zero-Gravity Back Pain' and Return Fuel Costs Deducted from Pay

The dream lunar colonization plan turns out to be 'irregular employment with the best view in space.' Job postings boast 'Beginners Welcome' and 'Homely Workplace,' but main duties involve dodging meteorites and dusting solar panels. The glamorous 'Lunar Feast' was revealed to be just one protein bar distributed once a month.

2025-09-17

Translations: JA

Tech Future Lab

Lunar Workers Urgently Needed at 1,300 Yen/Hour. Benefits Include 'Zero-Gravity Back Pain' and Return Fuel Costs Deducted from Pay

The dream lunar colonization plan turns out to be ‘irregular employment with the best view in space.’ Job postings boast ‘Beginners Welcome’ and ‘Homely Workplace,’ but main duties involve dodging meteorites and dusting solar panels. The glamorous ‘Lunar Feast’ was revealed to be just one protein bar distributed once a month.

Humanity’s new frontier, the Moon. Behind this glorious stage, a job posting that seems to have packaged and launched Earth’s labor problems directly into space is causing controversy. The recruiter is the emerging space development company “Astro Gig Solutions (AGS).” The company is massively recruiting light-duty staff for lunar bases at the “Earth standard” rate of 1,300 yen per hour, under the lofty philosophy of “realizing diversity in space work.”

The job site features attractive phrases like “A rewarding job where you can work while gazing at the magnificent universe” and “A clean environment surrounded by cutting-edge technology.” However, what our investigation revealed was a harsh working reality contrary to these poetic expressions. The main duties involve continuously dodging incoming micro-meteorites as “agility-building training” and sweeping regolith (lunar sand) accumulating on solar panels with a special broom that “develops skills unavailable on Earth.”

Particularly noteworthy are the overly innovative benefits. The “zero-gravity back pain” listed on the job posting appears to be an unknown occupational disease caused by long working hours in a zero-gravity environment. In response, the company’s HR representative proudly states, “It’s unique physical feedback you could never experience on Earth. It’s a kind of status symbol.” Furthermore, the cost of returning to Earth after contract completion is deducted from wages as “investment in personal growth” - a one-way ticket system. In other words, most of the earned salary disappears as return fuel costs.

The “Lunar Feast,” prepared as an incentive to boost worker morale, was revealed to be the distribution of one protein bar per month, with workers able to choose their favorite from all available flavors. An active worker, speaking anonymously, said weakly across the communication lag, “The only choices are strawberry or chocolate flavor. Last month it was vanilla due to stock shortage.”

Professor Sora Tokita of Tokyo Metropolitan University, specializing in space labor law, warns, “This is truly a 21st-century digital labor camp. The gig economy in a place where you physically cannot escape carries the danger of sending workers’ rights beyond the stars.” According to the professor, current space law has no provisions directly regulating workers’ minimum wage or working hours, making it literally a “legal vacuum.”

AGS released a statement saying, “We seek challengers with a frontier spirit. Those bound by outdated values like hourly wages and benefits are fundamentally unsuited to our mission.” While “#SpaceBlackCompany” is trending on social media, voices saying “I’d still like to try working there once” and “Maybe it’s better than Earth” are also rising, with opinions divided as vastly as outer space itself.

As humanity’s sphere of activity expands beyond Earth, can our work ethics also escape its gravitational pull? Is the pain in our necks as we look up at the moon shining in the night sky from the weight of hope for the future, or from the fatigue of staring at structures of exploitation? The answer is still in the vacuum.

Stakeholder Comments

Lunar Worker (Anonymous): “The Earth is blue. My payslip is blue too, though.”
AGS Recruitment Officer: “This is not labor. It’s participation in a grand mission. Please submit your resume in PDF and bring your determination in person.”
Earth’s Hello Work Staff: “When ‘Moon’ is written as the work location on job postings, we currently have no authority to provide guidance…”
Zero-Gravity Back Pain (personified): “I’m different from those Earth back pains. I am the pain of frontier spirit, what you might call ‘aristocratic pain.’”
Distributed Protein Bar: “Once-a-month brilliance. That’s me. A high-protein dream that only the chosen ones can taste.”
Earth (personified): “I wonder if those children are eating properly… I can’t even send them care packages…”
Labor Union AI: “Calculating Optimal Solution… Computing Transportation Cost Of Protest Placard Ink To Lunar Surface… Error. Error.”
Professor Sora Tokita: “A typical example of law failing to keep pace with technological progress. Before rockets, we should launch workers’ rights into space.”
Job Site Algorithm: “Matched as optimal job posting based on user’s ‘adventurous spirit’ and ’tolerance for low wages.’”
Incoming Micro-meteorite: “Don’t think you can dodge me. This is work, that’s work too.”