Its not just the quantity of hours, but the quality. If you can finish your workload, and then proceed to help your team so that ur team complete the task before 5pm, then i don't see why u shudn't leave early. This culture of counting hours seem to promote workhours over actual results, which encourage inefficiency.
StaySkeptic That's a good insight - "Keeping up a false reputation". Part of the reason why current asian school system is very problematic. 12 year old commiting suicide over school result is NOT normal.
Having to work overtime regularly is a sign of bad organisation within the company and of inept superiors. I think that many people just pretend to look busy while actually not getting much work done.
NB: I preface this comment to say that these are my experiences living and working in Japan and I’m not trying to bash anyone since I do respect the country and culture. -------------------- As a foreigner who had worked for a couple of Japanese companies for 6 years, this topic really makes me want to watch an ASMR video just to calm down. 😉I do agree that Japan would not be where it is today without hard work and I appreciate that, but while I started off working with high hopes for learning about Japanese efficiency in the business sense, I soon became disillusioned by it. One example that I found it to be so frustrating is when we would have many 2 and 3-hour meetings and would FINALLY get to the point of why we were there, which really should have only taken 30 minutes. Also, I couldn’t believe the lack of integrity that employees had in their self worth despite the fact that they got their work done and could go home for the day, but chose to stay because it looked bad to the boss who was still there. I understand the group ethic nature of many Asian cultures and I appreciate that some people genuinely do stay overtime to help others which is awesome, but many just do it to save face. I never understood this mentality because most Japanese businesses don’t fire people and so you can have several non-productive employees causing more work for everyone else, but god forbid that the collective “we” rocks the boat to fire them and hurt the corporate culture. I really don’t think much will change unless Japanese people themselves demand it or actually break the mold and leave on time for once (or there is some TV show that promotes that). You heard Hiroko’s interviewees say that “maybe Japanese businesses will change if they hire foreigners” or “maybe my generation will change that”, but those are answers that rely on the hope of others changing the system. Lastly, I do have great friends from Japan whom I love dearly and I have always loved Japan’s culture. My hope is that Japan will learn more about a life-work balance since I have unfortunately lost people that I have known to suicide and accidental alcohol poisoning due to stress. 😞
A Japanese friend told me that although everyone gets annual holidays, a lot don't take this time off as it would make them appear to be disloyal to the Company. Now seriously, how awful is that !
Frani Dance it’s just the culture of japan. in japan the relationship between someone older and someone younger is different than any other country. in other countries you do have to have manners and respect towards someone older, like a boss. But in japan there is just a culture of treating your elders almost like a god, maybe not that much but close to that. it’s just the culture. that’s why people in japan work on holidays because they’re trying to be considerate of their bosses
Nicholas Chen from the words of Bill Gates himself, I will love to hire a lazy person to do a difficult job than those hardworking people because lazy people can get an easy and productive way to do it.
I jus had the worst brain fart and was like “8...to 16 hours a day?!” But then I realized u were using army time haha 8-4 or 9-5 is standard in the US.
I heard about this culture in Japanese companies where the employees never leave until their superior (who's usually older than them) leaves. So the bosses stay and do overtime, and the employees stay at work waiting, not doing much of anything or even "fake working" just because it's seen as offensive to leave before your boss. This kind of mindset is probably really detrimental on a large scale
In my personal experience, they're really hardworking people, but very competitive at the same time. The sad thing is that most of them get to suffer from stress or even depression due to the long hours they spend at work.
working hard does not equate to being more productive. A lot of their methods are really outdated and are a waste of time when compared to other countries. Japan needs to work smarter, not harder.
There's an inverse relationship between long working hours and productivity. The longer working hours you have, the more time each individual worker feel they have to complete the job, so they get encouraged to be less productive or slack off. The shorter time you have to complete a job, the more efficiently you have to use your time. And then there are factors like fatigue and bad motivarion increasing the more of your life you spend at work.
In Sweden you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who works overtime, with exceptions in a few industries like accounting etc. It's also legally encouraged for employees to take 3 consecutive weeks paid vacation in summer, which is generally upheld as the company can get into trouble with the unions if they don't. This results in there being almost no work left to do in the summer months as everyone else is on vacation, so even if you wanted to do it, you can't. Now, I don't know about Swedish productivity, and I think we take things a bit too far in the other direction, but Swedish companies are doing good and the private economy is not worse for wear than any other developed country. So in this respect, I think the Japanese have something to learn.
I work with Japanese people from overseas, and I always used to tell my friends and family that "Japanese people live to work, while all the other nations work to live" Japanese people are so accurate and perfectionist, sometimes it is good and sometimes it is really bad, because sometimes simple things take more time than it should, where productivity becomes really slow and very low. Let me give you an example I once worked on a project that should take not more than a week, it took us 5 months to finish and that was due to the perfectionist mind, however we ended up having a very bad result because of the too many revisions and lack of planning.
From a European's perspective Japanese working hours have always sounded quite frankly insane. We're so used to a 40 hour work week here that it's hard to imagine what it's like over there or in the US for example. In my last work place, every work hour is recorded and you don't get an hourly wage - but if you have worked a lot of extra hours you can have the freedom to leave earlier on some days if it's okay for your work load/your boss. And even customer service employees get about 3-4 weeks of paid holiday a year. I think the amount of work hours + the holidays you get have a lot to do with stress levels and the overall well-being of a person.
If you worked to much in a year you would get paid forced holiday or your boss get a nice letter by the goverment/lawyer.If you want you could sue him.
Here in Sweden, we're entitled to a 4 week vacation each year, although whether or not it's paid vacation depends on how much you've worked. I think that's a great thing, although I've never taken advantage of it. I just become idle and bored if I have a long vacation, so I prefer taking days off here and there, at most a week off work.
In the US if you are a brand new employee despite your level...you do not start getting holidays/vacation days til you have worked for six months and by that time you have only gotten maybe 2 to 3 days at most...never more than 1 month regardless of how long you have worked too. very few businesses give days off for national holidays aside from labor day and 4th of july and I think it was memorial day. Lot of people work Christmas day, thanksgiving and other holidays. Wages depend on time, level and how well you kiss up to the uppers. cost of living is insanely high...for a one room apartment with mini-stove, fridge and bed(no sheets or anything.) and one mini-bathroom you get to pay $800 per month...not including internet, water, electric, trash..etc.. so by the time you are done paying for just basic living costs...oh and no insurance provided by most companies now....you might be lucky to have $50 left out of $1400(after taxes...before you might make $1700..but after you get social security, fed tax, state tax, poor health care coverage taxes and some taxes you do not know wth it is for taken out of your wages..oh and do not forget about union fees...you end up with loosing $300 to $500 out of your pay check each month. great right?) if you are fired from work you can get unemployment...but if you work for a small business...then its up to the duchebag owner if he wants to or not pay that..as if they make up a good enough excuse...like oh he stole something little...so i just fired him instead of going through the hassle of dealing with the police..and courts..etc...even though you did not...then they do not have to give you unemployment. If you quit..you do not get unemployment....so yeah fun times in the US.
Actually, I left America bc the jobs, in general, are so shitty and there's a lack of entry level jobs ANYWHERE for college graduates. Every job wants experience yet u can't get experience without a job 😑 sooooo...it's utter BS. And most internships and full time with NO SALARY. Like wtf? How can u live?! Also, just like someone mentioned above, although 40-50 hours is the average work week, Americans get little to no vacation time (unless you're a teacher)! Out of the many jobs I had worked during my life in the US, none gave me more than 1-2 weeks of vacation. And the only way to get that much time was to have worked there at least 2-3 years or longer, otherwise u would only get 3 days! It's terrible! Honestly, Europeans have it so lucky compared to the rest of the world. I just don't understand why other countries can't do the same!!!
This feeling of guilt on the part of employees about not leaving work on time is cultivated by the company and works to their benefit especially when it`s unpaid overtime. This mind game that companies seek to play every new year on its new recruits only hurts them in the end with low worker productivity, growing company dissatisfaction and ultimately higher turnover.
In my personal experience working with my Japanese assistants I can attest that they do work hard and very productive. I have to force them to stop working. I'm like: "Please go home!" But this is just anecdotal and not at all scientific maybe I just lucky.
Being at work a long time doesnt mean they are actually working hard and efficient. I dont think that anyone can be productive everyday working 10-12h and having very low paid holidays.
Maricris R. Strange that because I worked in japan for 2 years and I found them to be lazy. Sure they stay long hours but I could get the work done in near half the time. Truth is they are not productive and professional at looking busy. The overtime they do is completely pointless
steve gale I'm not talking about Japan specifically. I'm criticising the miss concepcion regards the overwork bringing more productivity. This issue is huge in my country too. Sorry I expressed myself not so clear
Their reasoning was beyond me. Sacrificing yourself for some random normie superior douchebag and feel guilty about it was one of the most stupidest thing I ever heard.
Sakkora choi wayasse! Hara-hara-harase Being shamed is a big issue. Even if the shame is restricted to just being in the work environment rather than publicly, it's often more than enough to cause a person to take their own life. You could say that accumulates on top of their already stressful workload.
lol the random normie superior that first appears in ur mind isnt the usual superior that one would imagine in japan. its more like usually an older person with more experience than you just silently working with a serious face. it can be intimidating to walk by and leave passing by superiors like that.
One of the most problematic aspects of Japan is the lack of efficiency versus the amount of working hours. It's not that they are not diligent or anything like that. It's just that it's literally next to impossible to be efficient when you work 68 hours a day... lol. What could have been 7-8 good productive hours, is spread in many more hours in order to appear "hard working". It's my conviction that Japanese are mostly "lots of hours" or "quantity" working and not "efficient" or "quality" working. The amount of extra hours that are oftentimes demanded or "silently" expected of the employees to spend in their workplaces, could have been devoted by the Japanese on their own personal lives, their friends, their hobbies and so on. Current research in the US has shown that lots of US companies have benefited when they were presented with scientific research that proves that a person can only be productive for something like 5 hours a day - any more than that it's just a loss of money and human resources - it causes great frustration and many other problems. A simple change in attitude and a simple restructuring of their companies have proven to be beneficial for both employers and employees. It's a win-win case.
In France it's legally about 35h/week, from 9 to 6 or 8 to 5, depending on the company. Annual paid leave is 5 weeks, I know it's a point many japanese do envy a lot, they even call it the french word for holidays "vacances". I guess there is some profound work to do to make things change, especially because the huge overtime work culture is something that has been going on for years, many youngsters seem to just think it's normal and don't question that, or anything else. Looking forward to see other insightful content like this ! Thanks Asian Boss for the great work you're doing here !
I’ve worked at a super Japanese company before and even though it was English teaching they still ran in a Japanese way where they guilt trip you for taking days off. In my experience I live with Japanese roommates and one of my roommates regularly leaves for work at 7am and gets back after midnight. He often works six days a week. Their government is pretty right wing and nationalistic so much of the Japanese education system reinforces traditional Japanese values and shies then away from the better condition in other countries. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Japanese government was purposefully keeping its country uninterested in politics by keeping them working to make sure they stay in power. It’s frustrating as a foreigner to watch really nice people lose their life to the workforce but it’s hard to have any sway as an outsider
I work at a super Japanese company but I leave on time out of respect for myself.. if youve completed your tasks for what's the point of becoming a corporate sacrifice for a company that isn't even compensating you for your time being there. I think the main reason that efficiency is so bad is that for every regular employee we have 1-2 managers who do basically NOTHING
When deciding to move to Asia, Japan was always at the top of my list. After reading so much about the working culture, it was quite clear to me that this is not the type of lifestyle that I wanted. Normally, I work as a chef. I am used to random un-wanted overtime. After years in kitchens, I knew that's not what I want out of life. What's the point of living, if you're just going to spend 80% of your week working? By the time you're free, you're too tired to want to do anything. It's a vicious cycle that never ends. And in Japan, they are saying 63% of people feel guilty to take time off, that they've earned! Horrible. Now I've been living in SE Asia, only work 15/20 hours a week and still have money to travel. Have definitely never been happier. As much as I love Japan and would love to live there, that kind of lifestyle is just not worth it.
Wow, amazing interview. Incredible to see and hear japanese like that, it feels like actually being there and talking to them. The ideas we have of japan and their people is always different from reality and superficial. Their insight about their own culture is SUPER interesting. Cool!!
Does 9-5 standard hours include lunch break? Because here in the Philippines our standard hours are 7-4 / 8-5 / 9-6 so 8 hrs of work plus 1 hr lunch break.
We have laws for working conditions here in Norway, like for example maximum workhours and how long time between breaks ect. It’s sooo important that the workers feel well if the company wants to thrive!
Very insightful although I have talked to many Japanese myself in the past while staying in Japan. It’s really good to know that young people are analysing the future in relation to this problem. Good luck Japan.
Work and life need balance, you need money, but you need to be happy and socialize also. In my company, people are flexible to come and go as long the work is done. You dont need to pretend work overtime if you dont have anything else to do. People need to be responsible with work but they also need to remember to take care of themselves otherwise you will be stressed or depressed.
I'll tell you something though, although overworking to the point of negative consequences is definitely wrong, the diligence & discipline it takes to abide by such a demanding culture is definitely something to be admired.
AngryMonkeyKing my country has a demanding culture also, sometimes Japanese are so very fixated about themselves and always want to think and impress other people for some weird pride they got by showing first impressions through work. They don't like it but they know others will like it that's why they are very obsessed of impressing superiors such as senpai or kouhai and are blindly raised from it.
Dear asianboss, I just saw a short video by 88rising about prostitution in korea. They were talking about how common prostitution is in korea and that 8/10 men has done it before. People in of korea know about this but don't talk about it. I would be very interested if you guys could show us what's really happening and what people know and think about this. Thank youu!!
The offices at my university condemned working overtime. Work efficiently, go home on time and spend time with your family. Overtime=unproductivity and laziness
I’m a mom in Japan. My work hours are 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. No pay, no breaks, no holidays, and my boss poops and throws up on me all day 😬 The difference between being a stay at home mom in Japan and being one back in the U.S. where I’m from is that in Japan my husband doesn’t help me much because he’s always working. In the U.S. usually both parents work and they are usually done by 5 or 6pm so at least the dad does something to help take care of the kids if he’s a good dad.
hello Hiroko, very good interviews. I worked in Korea for a year, so I know that there is great pressure to comply. I think forcing people to go home by 6pm would be a GOOD thing.
Actually at all my full-time work in life i had to work 12 hours per day, so i was a little bit supsrised then some of them said that's working 12 hours is really long, esp that payment in the jobs isnt so great >
As a teacher in my country or atleast my school I overwork specially at home... but what I love most about my country is that showing too much loyalty will make you look bad infront of your coworkers and you might be even called names like 'the tail shaker' working too much make others look bad meaning you become the new standard which isnt healthy... a person should work hard but not for long hours and should be paid enough
Korea/Japan (working inefficently long hours without being productive all the time) vs west Europe (normal, effectiv and productiv work days + a lot of paid holidays)
Fuu I totally agree with you. I wanna work in Europe for that reason evenif I love S.Korea. Those inefficent working culture is about to change after new president but not fast enough.
I think the guy who mentioned the Japanese indirect approach was the most insightful comment - even if it’s not obviously a direct cause. They work sooooooo hard to do effective business and still adhere to the their rigid inter-personal habits. Yes “habits”, as international business practices across all levels of corporations really are not old enough to be called ‘customary” or “traditional’. They are really handicapping themselves and those who want to work with them. This is from 18 yrs personl experience.
Working more hours can't lead to more productivity. Thinking it would is a huge mistake. They should definitely cut the overworking. I'm sure they'll become more productive, working less, better and more focused. :)
Like one of the interviewees said, introducing a policy that encourages people to leave work early would help with their well-being and productivity levels - but again that'll depend on how the policy is applied at the workplace and whether the person is a workaholic. Hoping to see a clearer change regarding this issue in Japan's work culture soon.
From my experience with working w Japanese, they know how to show their good sides to the bosses and show how hard working they are but in actual fact not really? Idk just my own experience
Thanks for putting up this video. I am very sad to know this " can't leave before my senior" mindset among young working Japanese class. Just yesterday , I got to know that my senior reports more than an a hour early to our office (at 7am) and leaves by 23:30 at night (usual time is 8:45 to 5:15). Just think about it who the hell wants to be like him ? No wonder Japan will suffer in long run because no foreign worker or any sane individual would do such long unpaid working hours of slavery.
Wow, this is a shocker hearing. I'm a Swede myself and I treasure my home and my circle of people close to me way too much, I would mentally suffer in such a place where you are forced to stay long hours. I also work in IT as a developer, so it is not a difficult task for me to just work from home if I need to care for a sick person. I can agree that it is nice to see the work area as a bit of a second home, but in my opinion it should never be the other way around so that you spend more hours awake at your work, that sounds terrifying to me.
I often see the discussion on whether they really work hard during those 12 hours or if it's just pretense, but we have to give the Japanese people still credit though, because they live in a very unstable geographical location with many tsunami's and earthquakes and they still manage to be the developed country they are today. PLUS, you shouldn't forget how they were bombed with two atomic bombs TWICE but that didn't stop them from building up their country again to economically flourish. I don't think any other country in the world would be able to recreate that. All i have to say is RESPECT to the japanese people.
When you're a nurse or other healthcare professionals, 16-18 hrs 😅 i once had to do 3 days straight because of Dengue outbreak and the weather is so bad, our relievers cant come in to work
here in Italy there isn't too many jobs and often you work for 3-6 month, after this time the workers are fired (contracts with limited time) there are many work strike and usually you work 6-8 hours for day.
In my country, Brasil, it really depends on the company and the kind of business. But I think it is a cultural thing. If they worked 8 hours a day, they would realize they would focus more in what is priority and the work would be accomplished anyway. Most of them stay until late because they feel guilty and embarrassed, not because they have so much to do.
Japan is a small country with little resourse .the only resource that they have is their people . So they have this mindset to work very hard for many generations . Which eventually stuck with them ... They don't need to overwork they need to work smart.
Standard paid working hours in my country is 7 hours a day (although you're away for at least 8 hours because 1 hour is unpaid lunch break). But there are exceptions depending on the type of job (some require you to work for 12-24 hours per shift, but you get extra days during the week off to compensate, or you have long working hours one week but get the next week completely off) The umbrella organization for the labour unions have pushed through legislation that demands that the standard is to have at least 11 consecutive hours off per day, so working schedules that violates it is illegal. There's talks about passing legislation that reduces all standard working days to 6 hour work days, but it's a matter of debate how realistic that proposal is (certain jobs and industries would never be able to adapt to it so there's bound to be exceptions) That said, while 7 hour work days might sound short to some people. The corporate culture is that during these hours you WORK. I've been to other countries where "formally" the hours are 7-8 hours per day. But a lot of that time is either consumed by paid breaks, or people taking informal "coffee breaks" or stand around the water cooler for several minutes chatting. Whereas if you tried something like that where I live, you would be fired rather quickly. So workdays are short compared to some countries. But the time at work is spent in a pretty efficient manner.
I live in Sweden and work 9-18 at a store with 1h break but we can't always take that hour break so it's more like 30-40min. Now during the summer we have way too few people here since we're a small company and half of us take summer holidays. I also work longer during the summer but it's usually about 20-40mins longer than usual and I don't get paid overtime until more than an hour has gone by. And it's very stressful. On the other hand you don't have anything really to do during the winter so the time go by so slowly. I wish there was a balance in the workload.
J K I didn't say 30-40mins is short I just said that we get shorter than our contract says :) 15mins is horrible though. In a 8 or 9h work day that is not enough.
I live in Germany, and Germany is one of the most efficient country's at the world, people usually work like 8 hours and one of the 8 hours is 1 hour brake to eat and something like that. But it's different depends on what your doing.
I am rather happy that work related stuff is neatly regulated in Switzerland. If not stated specifically in the contract beforehand, everything is regulated by standards of the law (like work hours, when/how long you have to take breaks, paid leave, absence due to health stuff etc)
i work 9h a day and before i thoughtlike wow in japan imma be abused but finally people are so kind they treat me well and its just a good environment of life, like yes i work 9h a day that is my choice, i told them that was going to work 9h
rank country h/year 1 Mexico 2,257 2 costarica 2,179 3 south Korea 2,024 4 Greece 2,018 5 Russia 1,980 10 portugal 1,863 15 USA 1,780 20 Italy1,723 21 Slovakia 1,714 22 Japan 1,710←here 23 Canada 1,695 24 spain 1,687 25 UK 1,681 (source OECD) you shouldn't do about Japan but south Korea lol
1710 h/Year aren´t even 40 hours per week. 8 hour per Day are 40 per Week and 160 hour per month. 160 x 11 (11 months because they could have 1 Month holidays) = 1760 H/year . So a Person who is working regular 8 hour per Day are working more than 1710 h/year. Sorry for my bad english.
I am in UK and my work hours are 8.30 a day but I get 1 hour unpaid lunch and 2 paid 15 min breaks. I am very productive during my day. I appreciate that I can go home at 5.
I’ve experienced work in a Japanese architecture and design agency in Tokyo. It’s only one point of view in a specific work environment but I remember well this notion of hard work vs. unproductivity... They did worked hard but unfortunately, the tough schedules (10am - 12pm/1am sometimes !!!) made my coworkers and I so sleepy on the regular schedules! (Which were supposed to be from 10am - 7pm) Some days, I could find my boss sleeping under her desk because she overworked! Usually, my collegue would fall asleep on their chair and be waked up by street noises, surprised they did fall asleep at work! 0.0 At first I was so surprised but then I get used to it and decided to optimize my time efficiently for myself, so that I can go home or enjoy evening life when I finish my tasks well. Of course, before deadlines, I’ve worked late but other ways, it was fine :)
There are a lot of Japanese manufacturing companies in the economic zones here in the Philippines. I myself have worked in two companies here. Ill share my experience on my 2nd company. Our bosses are Japanese and when we leave the office for home they are the ones who almost always stayed there. For us this implies that they really are hardworking people. But they required us to do overtime too. Sometimes we want it because more overtime means additional salary. Overtime is sometimes optional depending on the demands but when everyone is obliged there you will get stressed. We work 7am-4pm mon-sat but overtime required us to stay as much as 8pm. And this you have to do everyday. We even sometimes work on Sundays and holidays. I am just glad that Filipinos tend to have strong stress tolerance and so far I havent heard one committing suicide because of overwork. But I still commend the Japanese ways in the working environment because they are organized, time conscious and very particular to quality. (I am just referring to our Japanese bosses here and not the Japanese workforce in Japan since I havent worked there.)
In Saudi Arabia it’s 8 working hours a day usually. My company is very special as we had a new initiative from last year which we cut the work time to 6 hours.
Maybe productivity isn’t huge in Japan , but quality is. I live in Germany and work about 10-14 hours a day. I can’t sit down or eat longer than 5 minutes. I have a restaurant. But anyway, I love my job& my clients. ❤️ It’s worth it& I have the time of my life right now.
In Germany, it depends on the job. The average is 8-9 hours a day - can be more depending on where you work. I only work twice a week as a cashier - it's a mini-job in which you work 15hours a week. I work 8 hours a day. Before, when I worked more often during the week, it was just roughly 4-5 hours a day. When I become a teacher, it depends on the schedule and the events one's school is planning but it seldom is more than 8 hours, I think.
Hi Steve and Jesse, im from Indonesia. Why don't you guys come to Indonesia to see how is our perspectives about some issues? Indonesia is a verrrryy big country with a big amount of peoples u know, so it will be great for ur market if you can treasure Indonesia also:) Indeed u might think Indonesia is a growth country not as stable as countries in south asia that u've been researched, but Indonesia has a genuine and unique things that are so interesting to be explore. Ill be waiting ur next videos. Thx
We were able to see Hiroko's face when she asked that first dude what was his job, she did an amused face, how important is for Japanese - or maybe Asian in general - to show this kind of expression?
nice video! japanese and korean people work too much. my husband is korean and he work overtime everyday plus goes to work on saturday. one of his coworker goes home at midnight almost everyday. thats crazy! btw korean version of this video would be very interesting too :)
Ok. I just realized it. Japan’s business culture reminds me of my years of undergrad chem engineering. The best of us lived for school, worked hard asf and drank together (hard) whenever there was something to celebrate or we needed to blow off steam. If we continued like this together into the workforce, we’d be very similar to the successful Japanese.
In Sweden, paid vacation can range from 4-6 weeks a year (or even more or less if you own your own company) and for teacher it can be up to 8-10 weeks during the summer holidays alone (they are not really free the rest of the year). When I hear people in other countries that have 1 or 2 weeks of vacation, I wonder how they can relax and enjoy life at all... There is also some discussion of 6 hours/day with the same pay as for a 8 h/day, but 8 h/day is still the norm here.
Is not about how long your work hours, any normal human being would want to have life and just enjoy life, but there are people, who just don't like to work hard or sacrifice.
Working hard is great and all, but if it's to the point where some people feel overburdened and commit suicide makes it pointless.
True
Its not just the quantity of hours, but the quality. If you can finish your workload, and then proceed to help your team so that ur team complete the task before 5pm, then i don't see why u shudn't leave early. This culture of counting hours seem to promote workhours over actual results, which encourage inefficiency.
StaySkeptic yup Japanese especially those at the young adult stage are known for that.
看起来好好吃的蛋糕 yup truly agreed..
StaySkeptic That's a good insight - "Keeping up a false reputation". Part of the reason why current asian school system is very problematic. 12 year old commiting suicide over school result is NOT normal.
Yup your brain can only be productive for so long....I think the long hours are making Japan unproductive. Humans need downtime to be creative
@@PS-gw8sm many jobs don't need you to be creative, like a cab driver or mechanic
Efficient is the thing, work smart not hard
Its not possible to do both without suffering mental health consequences.
It sounds like some of them have difficult bosses though. Like if they finish all their work early they'll only get more.
In an ideal situation, you work smart and get promoted because you can handle more responsibility.
You are right
YASSS!
I used to work eight hours per day, and now I work only SIX.
Life's good.
*hire me in your company sir*
*which company are you working with sir*
I want to work there to
give me ur soul, i mean company
Ur French?
Having to work overtime regularly is a sign of bad organisation within the company and of inept superiors. I think that many people just pretend to look busy while actually not getting much work done.
Ive experienced the exact same thing! They pretend to work but actually they dont. Its a good idea to say, finish your work and go home!
Voyeger ..... XXXACTLYYY MANNN
NB: I preface this comment to say that these are my experiences living and working in Japan and I’m not trying to bash anyone since I do respect the country and culture.
-------------------- As a foreigner who had worked for a couple of Japanese companies for 6 years, this topic really makes me want to watch an ASMR video just to calm down. 😉I do agree that Japan would not be where it is today without hard work and I appreciate that, but while I started off working with high hopes for learning about Japanese efficiency in the business sense, I soon became disillusioned by it. One example that I found it to be so frustrating is when we would have many 2 and 3-hour meetings and would FINALLY get to the point of why we were there, which really should have only taken 30 minutes. Also, I couldn’t believe the lack of integrity that employees had in their self worth despite the fact that they got their work done and could go home for the day, but chose to stay because it looked bad to the boss who was still there. I understand the group ethic nature of many Asian cultures and I appreciate that some people genuinely do stay overtime to help others which is awesome, but many just do it to save face. I never understood this mentality because most Japanese businesses don’t fire people and so you can have several non-productive employees causing more work for everyone else, but god forbid that the collective “we” rocks the boat to fire them and hurt the corporate culture. I really don’t think much will change unless Japanese people themselves demand it or actually break the mold and leave on time for once (or there is some TV show that promotes that). You heard Hiroko’s interviewees say that “maybe Japanese businesses will change if they hire foreigners” or “maybe my generation will change that”, but those are answers that rely on the hope of others changing the system. Lastly, I do have great friends from Japan whom I love dearly and I have always loved Japan’s culture. My hope is that Japan will learn more about a life-work balance since I have unfortunately lost people that I have known to suicide and accidental alcohol poisoning due to stress. 😞
wow. that is sad.
An italian friend living in japan told me the exact same thing
thanks for sharing your life experience! I feel like people shouldnt be afraid to share more than a line of words in the comments.
A Japanese friend told me that although everyone gets annual holidays, a lot don't take this time off as it would make them appear to be disloyal to the Company. Now seriously, how awful is that !
Frani Dance it’s just the culture of japan. in japan the relationship between someone older and someone younger is different than any other country. in other countries you do have to have manners and respect towards someone older, like a boss. But in japan there is just a culture of treating your elders almost like a god, maybe not that much but close to that. it’s just the culture. that’s why people in japan work on holidays because they’re trying to be considerate of their bosses
Work hard, but don't overwork.
Nicholas Chen from the words of Bill Gates himself, I will love to hire a lazy person to do a difficult job than those hardworking people because lazy people can get an easy and productive way to do it.
Sakkora choi wayasse! Hara-hara-harase I agree being a lazy person myself
Work smarter not harder.
i am lazy and sleep all day but i outperform other classmates in school. 😂
work in normal mode (its better the easy mode)
Both of my parents work 8-16 here in Finland. Staying until 20-21 is just crazy! You would have no life besides work...
it also depends on what they do, one of my parents has this schedual too
In all honesty here in Finland we work too little to really succeed as a small economy in the global scale
lol
...work is life
I knew there's many hard worker in Finland, it's different from other Europe country. I don't know why
I jus had the worst brain fart and was like “8...to 16 hours a day?!” But then I realized u were using army time haha 8-4 or 9-5 is standard in the US.
There's a fine line between working hard and overworking
Japan: Gets guilty when leaving the office on time
Philippines: "We don't do that here"
many pilipinian never seen a toilet
I heard about this culture in Japanese companies where the employees never leave until their superior (who's usually older than them) leaves. So the bosses stay and do overtime, and the employees stay at work waiting, not doing much of anything or even "fake working" just because it's seen as offensive to leave before your boss. This kind of mindset is probably really detrimental on a large scale
In my personal experience, they're really hardworking people, but very competitive at the same time. The sad thing is that most of them get to suffer from stress or even depression due to the long hours they spend at work.
working hard does not equate to being more productive.
A lot of their methods are really outdated and are a waste of time when compared to other countries.
Japan needs to work smarter, not harder.
Working hard on something you love is not depressing.
Actually having a meaniful job is antidepressants.
Nightcor EDM what are you talking about, don't daydream
its legal new modern paid-slavery
at least the slave got paid
Pamela Palma us Asians are just too extreme.
There's an inverse relationship between long working hours and productivity. The longer working hours you have, the more time each individual worker feel they have to complete the job, so they get encouraged to be less productive or slack off.
The shorter time you have to complete a job, the more efficiently you have to use your time.
And then there are factors like fatigue and bad motivarion increasing the more of your life you spend at work.
In Sweden you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who works overtime, with exceptions in a few industries like accounting etc. It's also legally encouraged for employees to take 3 consecutive weeks paid vacation in summer, which is generally upheld as the company can get into trouble with the unions if they don't. This results in there being almost no work left to do in the summer months as everyone else is on vacation, so even if you wanted to do it, you can't. Now, I don't know about Swedish productivity, and I think we take things a bit too far in the other direction, but Swedish companies are doing good and the private economy is not worse for wear than any other developed country. So in this respect, I think the Japanese have something to learn.
German companies must give you 20 working days per year (=4 weeks with weekends) else there are in huge trouble with the law.
I work with Japanese people from overseas, and I always used to tell my friends and family that "Japanese people live to work, while all the other nations work to live"
Japanese people are so accurate and perfectionist, sometimes it is good and sometimes it is really bad, because sometimes simple things take more time than it should, where productivity becomes really slow and very low.
Let me give you an example I once worked on a project that should take not more than a week, it took us 5 months to finish and that was due to the perfectionist mind, however we ended up having a very bad result because of the too many revisions and lack of planning.
From a European's perspective Japanese working hours have always sounded quite frankly insane. We're so used to a 40 hour work week here that it's hard to imagine what it's like over there or in the US for example. In my last work place, every work hour is recorded and you don't get an hourly wage - but if you have worked a lot of extra hours you can have the freedom to leave earlier on some days if it's okay for your work load/your boss. And even customer service employees get about 3-4 weeks of paid holiday a year. I think the amount of work hours + the holidays you get have a lot to do with stress levels and the overall well-being of a person.
LifeMusic oh okay! I think I've just heard that a lot of Americans work a lot more than people here so that's why :)
If you worked to much in a year you would get paid forced holiday or your boss get a nice letter by the goverment/lawyer.If you want you could sue him.
Here in Sweden, we're entitled to a 4 week vacation each year, although whether or not it's paid vacation depends on how much you've worked. I think that's a great thing, although I've never taken advantage of it. I just become idle and bored if I have a long vacation, so I prefer taking days off here and there, at most a week off work.
In the US if you are a brand new employee despite your level...you do not start getting holidays/vacation days til you have worked for six months and by that time you have only gotten maybe 2 to 3 days at most...never more than 1 month regardless of how long you have worked too. very few businesses give days off for national holidays aside from labor day and 4th of july and I think it was memorial day. Lot of people work Christmas day, thanksgiving and other holidays. Wages depend on time, level and how well you kiss up to the uppers. cost of living is insanely high...for a one room apartment with mini-stove, fridge and bed(no sheets or anything.) and one mini-bathroom you get to pay $800 per month...not including internet, water, electric, trash..etc.. so by the time you are done paying for just basic living costs...oh and no insurance provided by most companies now....you might be lucky to have $50 left out of $1400(after taxes...before you might make $1700..but after you get social security, fed tax, state tax, poor health care coverage taxes and some taxes you do not know wth it is for taken out of your wages..oh and do not forget about union fees...you end up with loosing $300 to $500 out of your pay check each month. great right?) if you are fired from work you can get unemployment...but if you work for a small business...then its up to the duchebag owner if he wants to or not pay that..as if they make up a good enough excuse...like oh he stole something little...so i just fired him instead of going through the hassle of dealing with the police..and courts..etc...even though you did not...then they do not have to give you unemployment. If you quit..you do not get unemployment....so yeah fun times in the US.
Actually, I left America bc the jobs, in general, are so shitty and there's a lack of entry level jobs ANYWHERE for college graduates. Every job wants experience yet u can't get experience without a job 😑 sooooo...it's utter BS. And most internships and full time with NO SALARY. Like wtf? How can u live?! Also, just like someone mentioned above, although 40-50 hours is the average work week, Americans get little to no vacation time (unless you're a teacher)! Out of the many jobs I had worked during my life in the US, none gave me more than 1-2 weeks of vacation. And the only way to get that much time was to have worked there at least 2-3 years or longer, otherwise u would only get 3 days! It's terrible! Honestly, Europeans have it so lucky compared to the rest of the world. I just don't understand why other countries can't do the same!!!
This feeling of guilt on the part of employees about not leaving work on time is cultivated by the company and works to their benefit especially when it`s unpaid overtime. This mind game that companies seek to play every new year on its new recruits only hurts them in the end with low worker productivity, growing company dissatisfaction and ultimately higher turnover.
In my personal experience working with my Japanese assistants I can attest that they do work hard and very productive. I have to force them to stop working. I'm like: "Please go home!" But this is just anecdotal and not at all scientific maybe I just lucky.
Being at work a long time doesnt mean they are actually working hard and efficient. I dont think that anyone can be productive everyday working 10-12h and having very low paid holidays.
Maricris R. Strange that because I worked in japan for 2 years and I found them to be lazy. Sure they stay long hours but I could get the work done in near half the time. Truth is they are not productive and professional at looking busy. The overtime they do is completely pointless
Sparky 84 facts, Japan‘s GDP is pretty low in ratio to the amount of work they do lol
*low productivity can't be compensated with more work hours*
steve gale I'm not talking about Japan specifically. I'm criticising the miss concepcion regards the overwork bringing more productivity. This issue is huge in my country too. Sorry I expressed myself not so clear
Their reasoning was beyond me. Sacrificing yourself for some random normie superior douchebag and feel guilty about it was one of the most stupidest thing I ever heard.
Sakkora choi wayasse! Hara-hara-harase
Being shamed is a big issue. Even if the shame is restricted to just being in the work environment rather than publicly, it's often more than enough to cause a person to take their own life. You could say that accumulates on top of their already stressful workload.
It's just the hierarchical culture there unnfortunately
lol the random normie superior that first appears in ur mind isnt the usual superior that one would imagine in japan. its more like usually an older person with more experience than you just silently working with a serious face. it can be intimidating to walk by and leave passing by superiors like that.
The ethnocentrism in this comment is huge. Different cultures different values
@@xXxSkyViperxXx ahahahah
One of the most problematic aspects of Japan is the lack of efficiency versus the amount of working hours. It's not that they are not diligent or anything like that. It's just that it's literally next to impossible to be efficient when you work 68 hours a day... lol. What could have been 7-8 good productive hours, is spread in many more hours in order to appear "hard working". It's my conviction that Japanese are mostly "lots of hours" or "quantity" working and not "efficient" or "quality" working. The amount of extra hours that are oftentimes demanded or "silently" expected of the employees to spend in their workplaces, could have been devoted by the Japanese on their own personal lives, their friends, their hobbies and so on. Current research in the US has shown that lots of US companies have benefited when they were presented with scientific research that proves that a person can only be productive for something like 5 hours a day - any more than that it's just a loss of money and human resources - it causes great frustration and many other problems. A simple change in attitude and a simple restructuring of their companies have proven to be beneficial for both employers and employees. It's a win-win case.
In France it's legally about 35h/week, from 9 to 6 or 8 to 5, depending on the company. Annual paid leave is 5 weeks, I know it's a point many japanese do envy a lot, they even call it the french word for holidays "vacances". I guess there is some profound work to do to make things change, especially because the huge overtime work culture is something that has been going on for years, many youngsters seem to just think it's normal and don't question that, or anything else. Looking forward to see other insightful content like this ! Thanks Asian Boss for the great work you're doing here !
How about foreigners experience working in Japan??
Depends. I would believe many foreigners work at international companies that might have other standards regarding working hours and paid leave.
They've recently done a video on that
First you have to learn "corporative japanese" hahaha (im serious)
I’ve worked at a super Japanese company before and even though it was English teaching they still ran in a Japanese way where they guilt trip you for taking days off. In my experience I live with Japanese roommates and one of my roommates regularly leaves for work at 7am and gets back after midnight. He often works six days a week. Their government is pretty right wing and nationalistic so much of the Japanese education system reinforces traditional Japanese values and shies then away from the better condition in other countries. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Japanese government was purposefully keeping its country uninterested in politics by keeping them working to make sure they stay in power. It’s frustrating as a foreigner to watch really nice people lose their life to the workforce but it’s hard to have any sway as an outsider
I work at a super Japanese company but I leave on time out of respect for myself.. if youve completed your tasks for what's the point of becoming a corporate sacrifice for a company that isn't even compensating you for your time being there. I think the main reason that efficiency is so bad is that for every regular employee we have 1-2 managers who do basically NOTHING
When deciding to move to Asia, Japan was always at the top of my list. After reading so much about the working culture, it was quite clear to me that this is not the type of lifestyle that I wanted. Normally, I work as a chef. I am used to random un-wanted overtime. After years in kitchens, I knew that's not what I want out of life. What's the point of living, if you're just going to spend 80% of your week working? By the time you're free, you're too tired to want to do anything. It's a vicious cycle that never ends. And in Japan, they are saying 63% of people feel guilty to take time off, that they've earned! Horrible.
Now I've been living in SE Asia, only work 15/20 hours a week and still have money to travel. Have definitely never been happier. As much as I love Japan and would love to live there, that kind of lifestyle is just not worth it.
Wow, amazing interview. Incredible to see and hear japanese like that, it feels like actually being there and talking to them. The ideas we have of japan and their people is always different from reality and superficial. Their insight about their own culture is SUPER interesting. Cool!!
I hope the Japanese can have a better life. I hope they are not overworked, and can enjoy friends, family, and life more.
This was great! I cant believe that Japan has that kind of culture. It made me want to try and find a way to help reform their system.
We dont have over time at our country, when you finish your eight hours of work you can easily go home and continue your work tomorrow or next week
Standard hours are 9-5 here in the U.S. Wish the wages kept up with the cost of living these days though☹💸
Aaaal ! Right.
Aaaal ! Still cost of living depends on where you live. For sure there's a more reasonable cost of living somewhere else for you :)
Places with low cost of living generally have lower salaries to compensate too...
Move to a state that has cheaper living problems solved.
Does 9-5 standard hours include lunch break? Because here in the Philippines our standard hours are 7-4 / 8-5 / 9-6 so 8 hrs of work plus 1 hr lunch break.
We have laws for working conditions here in Norway, like for example maximum workhours and how long time between breaks ect. It’s sooo important that the workers feel well if the company wants to thrive!
Very insightful although I have talked to many Japanese myself in the past while staying in Japan. It’s really good to know that young people are analysing the future in relation to this problem. Good luck Japan.
Work and life need balance, you need money, but you need to be happy and socialize also. In my company, people are flexible to come and go as long the work is done. You dont need to pretend work overtime if you dont have anything else to do. People need to be responsible with work but they also need to remember to take care of themselves otherwise you will be stressed or depressed.
I'll tell you something though, although overworking to the point of negative consequences is definitely wrong, the diligence & discipline it takes to abide by such a demanding culture is definitely something to be admired.
Until someone throws themselves in front of a train, yes.
AngryMonkeyKing my country has a demanding culture also, sometimes Japanese are so very fixated about themselves and always want to think and impress other people for some weird pride they got by showing first impressions through work. They don't like it but they know others will like it that's why they are very obsessed of impressing superiors such as senpai or kouhai and are blindly raised from it.
AngryMonkeyKing sorry for bad english..
Dear asianboss,
I just saw a short video by 88rising about prostitution in korea. They were talking about how common prostitution is in korea and that 8/10 men has done it before. People in of korea know about this but don't talk about it. I would be very interested if you guys could show us what's really happening and what people know and think about this.
Thank youu!!
There is no success without hardwork and sacrifice no matter how smart you are
The offices at my university condemned working overtime. Work efficiently, go home on time and spend time with your family. Overtime=unproductivity and laziness
Working overtime is quite normal in Asia .
I’m a mom in Japan. My work hours are 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. No pay, no breaks, no holidays, and my boss poops and throws up on me all day 😬 The difference between being a stay at home mom in Japan and being one back in the U.S. where I’m from is that in Japan my husband doesn’t help me much because he’s always working. In the U.S. usually both parents work and they are usually done by 5 or 6pm so at least the dad does something to help take care of the kids if he’s a good dad.
hello Hiroko, very good interviews. I worked in Korea for a year, so I know that there is great pressure to comply. I think forcing people to go home by 6pm would be a GOOD thing.
I like Hiroko but I really miss Kei in this kind of interviews :(
asixxxove he's prob partying overtime
Trevor Sechrist no.
amanda o we love both kei and hiroko
Actually at all my full-time work in life i had to work 12 hours per day, so i was a little bit supsrised then some of them said that's working 12 hours is really long, esp that payment in the jobs isnt so great >
As a teacher in my country or atleast my school I overwork specially at home... but what I love most about my country is that showing too much loyalty will make you look bad infront of your coworkers and you might be even called names like 'the tail shaker' working too much make others look bad meaning you become the new standard which isnt healthy... a person should work hard but not for long hours and should be paid enough
Working hard, Korea VS Japan!
Korea/Japan (working inefficently long hours without being productive all the time) vs west Europe (normal, effectiv and productiv work days + a lot of paid holidays)
(Plays mortal combat theme song)
Korea is even worse.
Fuu I totally agree with you. I wanna work in Europe for that reason evenif I love S.Korea. Those inefficent working culture is about to change after new president but not fast enough.
How about Mexico? Their work week are the longest in the world
Thanks for the insights!
Agreed , they are working hard people
When I was young, I used to work overtime until 22:30 every day, but now I can go home at 18:00.
I think the guy who mentioned the Japanese indirect approach was the most insightful comment - even if it’s not obviously a direct cause. They work sooooooo hard to do effective business and still adhere to the their rigid inter-personal habits. Yes “habits”, as international business practices across all levels of corporations really are not old enough to be called ‘customary” or “traditional’. They are really handicapping themselves and those who want to work with them. This is from 18 yrs personl experience.
Working more hours can't lead to more productivity. Thinking it would is a huge mistake. They should definitely cut the overworking. I'm sure they'll become more productive, working less, better and more focused. :)
自由人 EXACTLY!
LightNessITA agreed.
Thank you Asian Boss
that’s why i’m happy to still be in school because there’s a lot of holidays and 2 months of summer holidays 🥹
Like one of the interviewees said, introducing a policy that encourages people to leave work early would help with their well-being and productivity levels - but again that'll depend on how the policy is applied at the workplace and whether the person is a workaholic. Hoping to see a clearer change regarding this issue in Japan's work culture soon.
Definitely earned a thumbs up.
Some work to live while others live to work 👐🏽
I Love Hiroko, she's cute
From my experience with working w Japanese, they know how to show their good sides to the bosses and show how hard working they are but in actual fact not really? Idk just my own experience
SO insightful to hear about the stereotypes from the concerned population, through the answers of ppl from diff ages, and walks of life. Good :0
Thanks for putting up this video. I am very sad to know this " can't leave before my senior" mindset among young working Japanese class.
Just yesterday , I got to know that my senior reports more than an a hour early to our office (at 7am) and leaves by 23:30 at night (usual time is 8:45 to 5:15).
Just think about it who the hell wants to be like him ?
No wonder Japan will suffer in long run because no foreign worker or any sane individual would do such long unpaid working hours of slavery.
Working hard on something you love is pure happiness in life.
Actually, having a meaniful job is antidepressants.
Wow, this is a shocker hearing. I'm a Swede myself and I treasure my home and my circle of people close to me way too much, I would mentally suffer in such a place where you are forced to stay long hours. I also work in IT as a developer, so it is not a difficult task for me to just work from home if I need to care for a sick person. I can agree that it is nice to see the work area as a bit of a second home, but in my opinion it should never be the other way around so that you spend more hours awake at your work, that sounds terrifying to me.
I try finish my work asap and so i could go home on time..otherwise my boss will call me to do some extra work and it will make me end up stay late😉
Productivity is not all about work hours its also about efficiency
I often see the discussion on whether they really work hard during those 12 hours or if it's just pretense, but we have to give the Japanese people still credit though, because they live in a very unstable geographical location with many tsunami's and earthquakes and they still manage to be the developed country they are today. PLUS, you shouldn't forget how they were bombed with two atomic bombs TWICE but that didn't stop them from building up their country again to economically flourish. I don't think any other country in the world would be able to recreate that. All i have to say is RESPECT to the japanese people.
what?!
Work SMART not HARD!
Damn I guess Persona 5 is an accurate allegory to how Japanese work society really is
I'm going to adopt this mindset if anything. For real.
When you're a nurse or other healthcare professionals, 16-18 hrs 😅 i once had to do 3 days straight because of Dengue outbreak and the weather is so bad, our relievers cant come in to work
here in Italy there isn't too many jobs and often you work for 3-6 month, after this time the workers are fired (contracts with limited time)
there are many work strike and usually you work 6-8 hours for day.
In my country, Brasil, it really depends on the company and the kind of business. But I think it is a cultural thing. If they worked 8 hours a day, they would realize they would focus more in what is priority and the work would be accomplished anyway. Most of them stay until late because they feel guilty and embarrassed, not because they have so much to do.
Japan is a small country with little resourse .the only resource that they have is their people . So they have this mindset to work very hard for many generations . Which eventually stuck with them ... They don't need to overwork they need to work smart.
Standard paid working hours in my country is 7 hours a day (although you're away for at least 8 hours because 1 hour is unpaid lunch break).
But there are exceptions depending on the type of job (some require you to work for 12-24 hours per shift, but you get extra days during the week off to compensate, or you have long working hours one week but get the next week completely off)
The umbrella organization for the labour unions have pushed through legislation that demands that the standard is to have at least 11 consecutive hours off per day, so working schedules that violates it is illegal.
There's talks about passing legislation that reduces all standard working days to 6 hour work days, but it's a matter of debate how realistic that proposal is (certain jobs and industries would never be able to adapt to it so there's bound to be exceptions)
That said, while 7 hour work days might sound short to some people. The corporate culture is that during these hours you WORK. I've been to other countries where "formally" the hours are 7-8 hours per day. But a lot of that time is either consumed by paid breaks, or people taking informal "coffee breaks" or stand around the water cooler for several minutes chatting. Whereas if you tried something like that where I live, you would be fired rather quickly.
So workdays are short compared to some countries. But the time at work is spent in a pretty efficient manner.
I live in Sweden and work 9-18 at a store with 1h break but we can't always take that hour break so it's more like 30-40min. Now during the summer we have way too few people here since we're a small company and half of us take summer holidays. I also work longer during the summer but it's usually about 20-40mins longer than usual and I don't get paid overtime until more than an hour has gone by. And it's very stressful. On the other hand you don't have anything really to do during the winter so the time go by so slowly. I wish there was a balance in the workload.
lilldea I have 15 minutes break
J K I didn't say 30-40mins is short I just said that we get shorter than our contract says :) 15mins is horrible though. In a 8 or 9h work day that is not enough.
lilldea true I work 8h. 6 time a week
I think 1H break is enough but
So interesting to see that working long to increase productivity actually has the opposite effect
I live in Germany, and Germany is one of the most efficient country's at the world, people usually work like 8 hours and one of the 8 hours is 1 hour brake to eat and something like that. But it's different depends on what your doing.
I am rather happy that work related stuff is neatly regulated in Switzerland. If not stated specifically in the contract beforehand, everything is regulated by standards of the law (like work hours, when/how long you have to take breaks, paid leave, absence due to health stuff etc)
i work 9h a day and before i thoughtlike wow in japan imma be abused but finally people are so kind they treat me well and its just a good environment of life, like yes i work 9h a day that is my choice, i told them that was going to work 9h
rank country h/year
1 Mexico 2,257
2 costarica 2,179
3 south Korea 2,024
4 Greece 2,018
5 Russia 1,980
10 portugal 1,863
15 USA 1,780
20 Italy1,723
21 Slovakia 1,714
22 Japan 1,710←here
23 Canada 1,695
24 spain 1,687
25 UK 1,681
(source OECD)
you shouldn't do about Japan but south Korea lol
Yo I not korea but mexico
in Italy people prefer broke the law and don't pay taxes
I can say it because I am Italian
1710 h/Year aren´t even 40 hours per week. 8 hour per Day are 40 per Week and 160 hour per month. 160 x 11 (11 months because they could have 1 Month holidays) = 1760 H/year . So a Person who is working regular 8 hour per Day are working more than 1710 h/year.
Sorry for my bad english.
Hikoro looks more adorable than before
More videos about Taiwan! Continue the good job
I am in UK and my work hours are 8.30 a day but I get 1 hour unpaid lunch and 2 paid 15 min breaks. I am very productive during my day. I appreciate that I can go home at 5.
I’ve experienced work in a Japanese architecture and design agency in Tokyo. It’s only one point of view in a specific work environment but I remember well this notion of hard work vs. unproductivity... They did worked hard but unfortunately, the tough schedules (10am - 12pm/1am sometimes !!!) made my coworkers and I so sleepy on the regular schedules! (Which were supposed to be from 10am - 7pm)
Some days, I could find my boss sleeping under her desk because she overworked! Usually, my collegue would fall asleep on their chair and be waked up by street noises, surprised they did fall asleep at work! 0.0
At first I was so surprised but then I get used to it and decided to optimize my time efficiently for myself, so that I can go home or enjoy evening life when I finish my tasks well. Of course, before deadlines, I’ve worked late but other ways, it was fine :)
There are a lot of Japanese manufacturing companies in the economic zones here in the Philippines. I myself have worked in two companies here. Ill share my experience on my 2nd company. Our bosses are Japanese and when we leave the office for home they are the ones who almost always stayed there. For us this implies that they really are hardworking people. But they required us to do overtime too. Sometimes we want it because more overtime means additional salary. Overtime is sometimes optional depending on the demands but when everyone is obliged there you will get stressed. We work 7am-4pm mon-sat but overtime required us to stay as much as 8pm. And this you have to do everyday. We even sometimes work on Sundays and holidays. I am just glad that Filipinos tend to have strong stress tolerance and so far I havent heard one committing suicide because of overwork. But I still commend the Japanese ways in the working environment because they are organized, time conscious and very particular to quality. (I am just referring to our Japanese bosses here and not the Japanese workforce in Japan since I havent worked there.)
Imperial japan: BANZAI!!!!
Modern japan: SENPAI!!!!!
In Saudi Arabia it’s 8 working hours a day usually. My company is very special as we had a new initiative from last year which we cut the work time to 6 hours.
Maybe productivity isn’t huge in Japan , but quality is.
I live in Germany and work about 10-14 hours a day. I can’t sit down or eat longer than 5 minutes. I have a restaurant.
But anyway, I love my job& my clients. ❤️ It’s worth it& I have the time of my life right now.
From France: 35h a week/29 days off per year. With one of the a best productivity rate among the OCDE countries.
Have a mix feeling for them. Salute but sad at the same time.
In Germany, it depends on the job. The average is 8-9 hours a day - can be more depending on where you work. I only work twice a week as a cashier - it's a mini-job in which you work 15hours a week. I work 8 hours a day. Before, when I worked more often during the week, it was just roughly 4-5 hours a day. When I become a teacher, it depends on the schedule and the events one's school is planning but it seldom is more than 8 hours, I think.
Hi Steve and Jesse, im from Indonesia. Why don't you guys come to Indonesia to see how is our perspectives about some issues? Indonesia is a verrrryy big country with a big amount of peoples u know, so it will be great for ur market if you can treasure Indonesia also:) Indeed u might think Indonesia is a growth country not as stable as countries in south asia that u've been researched, but Indonesia has a genuine and unique things that are so interesting to be explore. Ill be waiting ur next videos. Thx
And I'm complaining for not having a job I must be crazy 😢
oh please, interview koreans and make that 'asian overwork' be noticed to world wide
Yes, working hard is good. However, i believe working smarter is better. Finishing the task at the fastest and most efficient way makes it the best.
Hiroko is very cute
She's also very kind in her TH-cam comments too, even her Japanese sounds more upbeat than others
Richard E How sweet of youuuuuu
Hiroko TV People! Subscribe to her! ☝️☝️☝️
We were able to see Hiroko's face when she asked that first dude what was his job, she did an amused face, how important is for Japanese - or maybe Asian in general - to show this kind of expression?
Luiz Felipe it's not racial thing, it's a professional thing. A good interviewer should look interested in what an interviewee is saying.
nice video! japanese and korean people work too much. my husband is korean and he work overtime everyday plus goes to work on saturday. one of his coworker goes home at midnight almost everyday. thats crazy!
btw korean version of this video would be very interesting too :)
Ok. I just realized it. Japan’s business culture reminds me of my years of undergrad chem engineering. The best of us lived for school, worked hard asf and drank together (hard) whenever there was something to celebrate or we needed to blow off steam. If we continued like this together into the workforce, we’d be very similar to the successful Japanese.
This channel is never recycled.
Guy : 24 days per year
Interviewer : Lucky !
Me, a french : ok wtf ?
out of curiosity, how many holidays days to the French get on average??
@@ambseyyy We usually get 5 weeks a year
@@lolaaustin1827 thanks!
@@lolaaustin1827 holy crap I need to move to France
Money and work are important, but health is wealth.
In Sweden, paid vacation can range from 4-6 weeks a year (or even more or less if you own your own company) and for teacher it can be up to 8-10 weeks during the summer holidays alone (they are not really free the rest of the year). When I hear people in other countries that have 1 or 2 weeks of vacation, I wonder how they can relax and enjoy life at all...
There is also some discussion of 6 hours/day with the same pay as for a 8 h/day, but 8 h/day is still the norm here.
Is not about how long your work hours, any normal human being would want to have life and just enjoy life, but there are people, who just don't like to work hard or sacrifice.