I have quit jobs several times in Japan and while quitting was not difficult in itself, I did not like one bit the fact that resignations are almost kept secret to most employees. Like some of my more distant colleagues noticed weeks after I left that I was not in the office anymore and found out by asking around that I resigned. Always amazes me.
I saw this several times in my first post-college engineering job in America; it's not unique to Japan. I didn't notice the guy in the cubicle had left the company for about a week, and there were other people who "mysteriously" vanished. It's a company culture thing: this (small) company just didn't bother telling anyone what was going on with other employees.
At the big companies I've worked at, this would be unheard of: they always had nice going-away parties etc. They even had going-away parties when people transferred to another department.
The secret approach seems to happen in America as well. I've seen it several times. Some quits and no one is told until a few days beforehand. People on other teams are not told until later, etc.
In Canada its much more open. Everyone knows, you give more 4-2 weeks depending on how senior you are. Usually there is gift-giving/going for lunch/etc.
