i see a lot of youtube videos of japanese people complaining about the extreme work hours and how depressing it is. i can imagine how hard it is. i wonder why it is so normalised? is there a reason? also has there ever been effort to change this ? if so what happened? it makes me feel so bad for them, i couldn’t imagine doing what they do however it seems like they don’t have much of a choice.
In the past or now?
In the past, the economic bubble of the 80s popped and a lot of businesses died so people and the economy brute forced their way into staying afloat. There wasn’t much to it besides that and the focus on doing what must be done and little outward complaining.
Now, since 2019, there has been major work reform in Japan. Japan actually works 100 hours less than the US on average per OECD data and made it VERY punishing to not report work hours or overtime. The main drivers of overwork now are just black companies but they’ve been dying since late Heisei and only a handful of truly black companies exist. They’re more of an insult to bad management than a true term now.
While Takaichi’s recent “働いて働いて働いて” speech is a bit of an omen, the fact everyone disavowed such thoughts is hopefully a sign that black companies and overwork will never return as it once was
C'est vrai de vrai ça ? En 2015-2016, je faisais du 100h par semaine... j'ai fait un burn out et j'ai quitté le Japon. Y a vraiment eu des efforts depuis ? Et y a toujours la notion du dominantt et du dominé ? C'était insupportable.
本当の本当なの？
2015〜2016年の頃、週に100時間も働いていて…完全にバーンアウトして日本を離れたんだ。
それから本当に改善されたの？
それに、まだ上下関係の圧力って残ってるの？
あれは本当に耐えられなかった。
The improvements have not been across the board. It's a bit of a two tier system. The good companies are in desperate need for people, young talented people, if treated unfairly, leave for better opportunities, no ifs or buts. But, smaller companies or companies that have not modernised or more likely to overwork their employees.
The videos you’ve been watching are wrong.
Working hours have gone down considerably over the past 30 years. Among the G7 countries, Canada, Italy, the US have longer working hours.
Tell that to my husband, his co-workers, and friends bc they are gone from morning till late at night. I guess it's changing but we aren't seeing the results over here. Looking at you Yamato! Calling their bitch ass out
There's still plenty of black companies and there's also plenty of people who enable them due to feeling a strong sense of responsibility or shouldering it alone. Just try and help him at least acknowledge the problem, and start looking for new opportunities. Good luck 🤞
Yeah I know and yeah I have and I don't care anymore but it still irks me that such a big company can be so terrible. I'm fine with my mail bring a little late if it means people can go home earlier
Edit: this is actually the second post about this matter I've basically commented the same thing on today. I don't like this "there's still black companies" mentality, yeah duh but like most of the largest corporations are still treating their workers like shit so that's the majority of workers. There's a little change here and their but it's needs to speed the f**k up and people need to get their head out of their ass. Not just here in Japan but everywhere this is happening it's too common. There's so many of us too if we just put our food down they have no power 😩 but everyone is afraid
The situation in Japan is somehow "similar" to the US. Large companies will always try to squeeze more out of their workers... that’s what they do. The difference is whether employees can push back. Unionization is low in both countries and only in certain industries.
That means that the standard office jobs, that are unfortunately, replaceable, there’s basically zero chance of pushback.
The only way to make sure you don’t get crushed is a mix of: double income, having a specialised or in demand skill, knowing how to promote yourself, and, mostly, just looking around constantly until you land a better job.
The Japanese and American companies are vastly different. Japanese companies tend to retain their profit because they cannot fire workers (especially the Seishain) easily like in the US. Whereas in the US, the profits tend to go to the shareholders and the management.
In order to keep the workforce even during an economic downturn, the management suppress their workers salaries, with which the unions have complied.
This has worked in the past 20 odd years because of deflation, but the tide has changed.
The major problem with the unions in Japan is that negotiations between the management happens only once a year, and they all want to end with a full demand or else it’s not considered a victory. Which means the unions tend to demand a low figure to the management.
Great explanation, makes a lot of sense
Edit: the last part of my comment was really just fantasy and wishful thinking , I'm basically aware of what you described and my imagine was like a full workers uprising. I know it's not really possible with the current state. I'm just irritated so many other foreigners are like oooh things are changing blah blah blah. I'm like where? Where do you see unions actually being helpful? Where do you see workers standing up for themselves? The general attitude amongst most people here is still to not rock the boat
Yep very true. I'm glad it's not my problem. I have tons of skill and never had to work for a shiity company. Just sucks being married to someone that doesn't have that kind of foresight and has no marketable skills
JP annual work hour is like 1600-1700, lower than US of 1800~, higher than EU of 1300-1500
also lower than Singapore of 2000+.
so no, fact check comes first
Why do you think someone so overworked has enough time to film, narrate, and edit a video??? The most logical conclusion is that they are BS ing for foreign viewers who wanna feel better about themselves by using other countries as misery p*rn.
https://preview.redd.it/kzf07w91ujcg1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=2be3fac58dbab84f0654d95bff2d60442862a418
Nice graphic and possibly accurate on some level.
Not accurate for Australia and Japan though, IMO.
Japanese stats are, in my view, usually pretend stats - for many topics including, say, vehicle exhaust emissions or nuclear safety compliance. Baked to match dreams rather than reality.
Actually many people in Japan still widely adhere to doing "voluntarily" OT without any paper trail. The data never gets into the system so the books don't need to be cooked.
OTOH, Australian people (even now) do not generally work longer hours than Japanese actually do. But at least Australians can reliably get paid if they do. The seemingly long working hour stats for Australia are the result of outliers on the extreme end. They don't represent the norm for most people. It's true that working hours have increased drastically in the last 30 years though. People used to clock off religiously at 5:30pm without exception. Once we had internet though, "star performer" insomniacs started logging on and reading email all night instead of having a life. That turned into creeping employer expectations and, fast forward , now many people are chained to work 24/7.
in 2020s, long hours at big corporations are mostly not a thing anymore.
The people working extreme hours tend to be those stuck at low-tier companies, people in non-regular or precarious jobs, or a small number of hardcore elites who knowingly choose insane hours because the financial payoff is massive.
What you’re describing is not at all the norm. It honestly sounds as strange as watching a documentary about someone who ruined their life with fentanyl and then assuming that’s what quarter of Americans are like.
i wonder why so many complain about it on youtube then! i’m so surprised by these responses
That happens sometimes. A lot of video creators cash in by presenting Japan as either unbelievably awesome or completely terrible.
Amix of post-WWII rebuilding, lifetime employment, and social pressure. Loyalty to the company became tied to personal worth, and staying late turned into a signal of dedication rather than productivity.
I'm pretty sure I worked longer hours and had more stress working full time in Canada
Japan’s average annual working hours are about 1,600 hours, while in the US, they are around 1,790 hours. However, these figures include non-regular workers such as part-timers. Since non-regular employment accounts for about 37% of the workforce in Japan and 34% in the US, these averages alone do not allow us to directly compare the working hours of full-time employees.
According to the JILPT International Labour Comparison Data Book 2025, there is also data on the share of workers who work 49 hours or more per week by country. In Japan, 15.2% of workers fall into this category, which is higher than the 11.8% in the US. Among the 27 countries listed, Japan ranks 5th in terms of the proportion of people working 49 hours or more per week. So overall, Japan can be said to have a relatively large share of long-hours workers.
That said, labor reforms were introduced starting in 2019. The following table shows the distribution of workers in Japan by monthly working hours from 2018 to 2024. It clearly shows that the number of workers who work 181 hours or more per month has decreased by 2024 compared to 2018. However, there is still a certain number of people who work 221 hours or more per month. The Japanese people you saw on YouTube complaining about long working hours are likely to belong to this group.
https://preview.redd.it/lrm5qltgfocg1.jpeg?width=1143&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=16e243e4838b00536cc5b02457e1caa1a778d326
※ "時間" means hour.
Japan experienced rapid economic growth until the early 1970s. At that time, society was largely male-centered, and it was common for men to work long hours to support their families. Computers were not yet widespread in companies, so high economic growth was achieved mainly through long working hours. Many companies still retain aspects of this work culture today. In addition, Japan is a highly homogeneous society with strong social pressure, which can make it difficult for subordinates to leave early when their bosses are still working.
Another factor is that performance has not been evaluated in a clearly job-based way. Values like endurance, perseverance, and responsibility have been praised, which has led to a work culture where long hours are more likely to be rewarded.
In modern times, improving labor productivity through digital technology is essential. However, a major challenge - especially for small and medium-sized enterprises - is that even when they adopt digital technologies, they often fail to effectively translate them into productivity gains.
One explanation is that we learned such salary system by automated plant industry (like T-ford). Then we had convinced some weird doctrines even though in other businesses,
it is not as bad as it was but the hierachy is one problem, aging society and men who prefer be with colleagues than go back home (men/female equality is at the bottom of the scale). The culture is not really to say go to hell to your boss but do what others do. Some company may be better but there are a lot of company abusing people (for reason given above) and it can be hell. Professional life comes before private life usually so if you are not in the good place ...
It’s not a part of Japanese culture