I suppose people demand not only wage, but also good work environment for working. It can hardly be said that Japanese work environment is good because of law rate of spending paid vacation days and much overtime work hours. According to the study of Reuters, Japanese take least paid vacation of about 16.5 days; moreover, they use only about half of it. On the other hand, French get most vacation of about 34.5, and they take almost of them. This is because that many companies in Japan or business manager are opposed to employee taking a vacation day. For example, if a Japanese employee asks his boss to take a paid holiday, he would say “Do not trouble fellow workers, and your salary appraisal would get worse if you take vacation days”.
In addition, Japanese working time is longer than that of other advanced countries. According to the research of OECD, the average working time of Japanese worker is about 1830 while that of Germany and France are about 1350, and this number does not include unpaid overtime working hour. In Japan, the average annual unpaid working hour is about 250 hours, so the average total annual working hour is over 2000. One of the reasons why the working hour is so long is that many companies recognize not only performance of employee, but also their working hour. Another reason is that Japanese society has a business culture which subordinate officers may not go off work before their boss leave the firm.
The underlying cause of the problem of the Japanese poor working condition is Japanese collective society and Japanese culture which Japanese so not want to go against a person with power.
This was an interesting article. I think that many East Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, and China, all have similar cultural values that place emphasis in group conformity, respect to authority, and hard work. I think that because of these values, the work environment of these countries don't encourage individualism, creativity, or entrepreneurship, which results in unhappy and overworked employees.
ReplyDeleteI hope that Japan and other East Asian countries adjust their work environment and work ethics in the future.
Very interesting information, Sakimua. How are the attitudes and expectations of the younger workforce members different from their parents'? Is what they want in conflict with the many advantages provided by the current Japanese labor market forces? Will meeting their demands cause societal instability?
ReplyDeleteI love this post. It was really interesting and informative! I really think you summed it up perfectly at the end by saying that these work conditions and norms are to be expected because Japan is a collective society.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I can think to add is what professor Losh is always saying in class. That we should add our Ethos into our writing, we should speak from a place of authority. Do you have any personal experiences that you could add to this post?
Great article! This article is absolutely informative and interesting. As a Japanese, I totally agree that the factors you tell us here, why Japanese average working hour is longer than other countries is because of the Japanese collective society and the traditional culture which Japanese people don't want to go against a person with higher power.
ReplyDeleteFew months ago, I read a article about causes of suicide death. it said that Japanese death rate from overwork has increased since 1990s.
Has the government or even companies worked on some practices to make the working condition better?
What is your opinion that you can come up with to deal with the problem?
Hope to hear your opinions soon!