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Answerman - Is Working To Death Really A Thing In Japan?

While Japan might be nice to visit, you couldn't pay me enough to live there. I could never assimilate into their culture, nor would I ever want to.

Justin does a bang up job overinflating Japan's issues

Oh? Care to support that claim?

Having worked in software engineering in the US, I can definitely say overworking is a thing here, but maybe more so if you actually get paid for it. I used to work 120+ hour work weeks, even staying overnight at the office some days, and though it was admittedly very stressful,

DerekL1963 wrote:

Oh? Care to support that claim?

It's probably simpler to just read the article I linked (it's to the Seattle Times) which provides quotes and numbers that back up (and more) what Justin said.

Justin does a bang up job overinflating Japan's issues to the point that posts like this become standard. It's so like the reverse weeb to make Japan out as some depressing, third world country mostly just to counter the ones who have even an iota of positive views of the country.

There is going to be sacrifices to productivity and prosperity. Japan would still be among the ranks of Vietnam or Laos catching up with the rest of the big boys in the economic world.

Trying to baby your employees like the West leads to a self-serving, egotistic work force (and it bit Europe really hard during the Great Recession). The number of self-important schmucks in the office that I had to deal with because they were taught in life that they were special snowflakes when in truth are just easily replaceable grunts is hilarious at best.

It's easy for a Westerner to look at this and think it's nuts. But without this mindset, it might be impossible for a tiny country like Japan to afford to produce the anime we love. The "Japanese work ethic" as it came to be known was absolutely the reason the country rose to such prominence. When you expect a lot of yourself, it's very often possible you can actually do what you're trying to do, after all. With so many people working so hard and with such high personal standards, it's no wonder that the country became as productive as it did.

Justin does a bang up job overinflating Japan's issues to the point that posts like this become standard. It's so like the reverse weeb to make Japan out as some depressing, third world country mostly just to counter the ones who have even an iota of positive views of the country.

There is going to be sacrifices to productivity and prosperity.

Trying to baby your employees like the West leads to a self-serving, egotistic work force.

The number of self-important schmucks in the office that I had to deal with because they were taught in life that they were special snowflakes when in truth are just easily replaceable grunts is hilarious at best.