Morbidly overworking is a tradition in Japan. Why?

[CL]

Hey all. I just finished watching the first episode of an anime that had to do with a reincarnated witch that spent 300 years killing slimes. Thing is that she died because of the Japanese business culture's greatest tradition: working without taking a break. Seriously, I get that money is tight a lot of times, but a day off is mandatory for a reason. What gives in Japan that a scenario in Japan kills people and is made into a running gag like Truck-kun became? Yes, people do become roadkill once in awhile, but I Googled this and found out that bosses in Japan are the most unlikely to approve time off. Why is this a joke to them?

 

[ForestDweller]

Because culture. Even here, you still want to do overtime because your co-workers are also working overtime. You'll get fucked socially if you're the only one not doing overtime, being seen as lazy and such.

Also, Japan has no labor unions.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Can affirm, I am working in a Japanese company and they want the employees to work 896, as in 8am to 9pm, 6 days a week. Getting a medical leave is seen as cowardice and an off/ leave is basically heresy. Though the worst is getting social death/ ostracized and your career path smashed to bits.

 

[CL]

Because culture. Even here, you still want to do overtime because your co-workers are also working overtime. You'll get fucked socially if you're the only one not doing overtime, being seen as lazy and such.

Also, Japan has no labor unions.

Can affirm, I am working in a Japanese company and they want the employees to work 896, as in 8am to 9pm, 6 days a week. Getting a medical leave is seen as cowardice and an off/ leave is basically heresy. Though the worst is getting social death and your career path smashed to bits.

Thank you both for responding to my question and sharing your experience. That does suck and, hypothetically, if they really are prioritizing labor and status over, practically speaking, living, then I don't understand why they wouldn't consider the plummet on cost efficiency. They would be losing a hardworking employee! Wouldn't it cause a loss of proficiency if they were to lose an already proven hardworking employee and having then to replace them with a fresh off the concrete block trainee?

 

[NotaNuffian]

Thank you both for responding to my question and sharing your experience. That does suck and, hypothetically, if they really are prioritizing labor and status over, practically speaking, living, then I don't understand why they wouldn't consider the plummet on cost efficiency. They would be losing a hardworking employee! Wouldn't it cause a loss of proficiency if they were to lose an already proven hardworking employee and having then to replace them with a fresh off the concrete block trainee?

Well... ever since WWII, the japs are always fucked in the head, tentacle hentai and anime... so yeah...

Even their school is fucked up with high stress due to emphass on going to the best university = a good life.

 

[ForestDweller]

Can affirm, I am working in a Japanese company and they want the employees to work 896, as in 8am to 9pm, 6 days a week. Getting a medical leave is seen as cowardice and an off/ leave is basically heresy. Though the worst is getting social death/ ostracized and your career path smashed to bits.

No wonder you keep finding boring as fuck easylife isekai. Adults don't want to read protagonists working hard since that means it's like their real life all over again.

 

[NotaNuffian]

No wonder you keep finding boring as fuck easylife isekai. Adults don't want to read protagonists working hard since that means it's like their real life all over again.

That is true, you can tell from most JP novels they are mostly easy life with OP skill because IRL, all the workers are powerless and easily replaced.

 

[Deleted member 53101]

Yeah, there's a lot of them portrayed in media and even novels. I've watched the Asian Boss videos about the life of a salaryman, and an animator in Japan. And I'm quite surprised that animator in Japan is underpaid and overworked to death ..., I'm now feeling a bit guilty downloading pirated anime.

 

[CheertheDead]

Basically, Japanese just live to overwork themselves to death in another day.

Diligence is often a commendable trait but i am disgusted by how it is perverted by Japanese work culture.

 

[Noks]

It is also the reason why school life genre are popular in japan. It is the only time they could enjoy life before being worked to death, seldom do they spend time with family. You could even see it in anime and such, fathers aren't seen much.

 

[NotYourTypicalMan]

sadge japan

 

[Kilolo]

it's not always like that you know, you can see from old anime or manga from showa era (before 1989), things isn't as horrible as it's now.

the first trigger is the world economy collapse at 1998, japan took a hard brunt back then. and they didn't really have any national resource like oil or gold mine to be exported to another country. what they have is: human resources.

because of the economy collapse and no fossil resource to relied on, the prime minister back then giving lax to labor law, they cut down cost of electricity for production company, erase maximum hour of weekly working quota (which means no overtime bonus pay, they just pay you the standard rate per hour), and those who kept working to regain back japan economy to it's feet; are labeled as heroes by the country. japan people are a prideful race, those are enough to drive them to pushing themselves to their limit.

japan finally getting back to their feet in just 2-3 years, economy finally restored. but the problem is: the higher up finally realize that japan people are mostly a pushover and you can force them into work more than 100 hours per week.

japan economy back, but their workaholic habit didn't go away. resulting in lots of company since then exploit their worker and try to find loophole in the labor law. and the government didn't do anything about it since what those companies doing are actually supplying them with lots of tax money.

things goes on until now and it become everyone habits before anyone could realize it.

 

[someguysomeone]

All of asia is fucked. it's like we live in wuxia world and if you work hard in the rat race you can ascend and go to northern Europe which is a fantasy world.
When a asian is born his ultimate purpose is to escape asia and go to Europe. that's why all asians are so smart only the best of best asians are able to escape asia.
so asians have a survival bias .

of course there is Africa and south America but ascending from there is hard. you born there you stuck there. they don't have the enough qi concentration.

 

[Discount_Blade]

All of asia is fucked. it's like we live in wuxia world and if you work hard in the rat race you can ascend and go to northern Europe which is a fantasy world.
When a asian is born his ultimate purpose is to escape asia and go to Europe. that's why all asians are so smart only the best of best asians are able to escape asia.
so asians have a survival bias .

of course there is Africa and south America but ascending from there is hard. you born there you stuck there. they don't have the enough qi concentration.

made me bust out laughing on the Africa part. not enough qi concentration indeed.

 

[someguysomeone]

seriously Sweden might as well be heaven. like you can literally sell drugs in Sweden and then stop selling them and get clean. get a job and live.
get in a good university and get a good job
it's not possible anywhere in asia where once you fuck up even once you are fucked for life
.
ascending analogy works too well.
one of the major tribulations in ascending is attachment to mortal pleasures and life and not being in aabsolute state of zen.
mortal bindings like friends and family you would leave behind.
so people who could have left don't leave cause they have friends and family and settling in new place from scratch is hard

 

[Discount_Blade]

seriously Sweden might as well be heaven. like you can literally sell drugs in Sweden and then stop selling them and get clean. get a job and live.
get in a good university and get a good job
it's not possible anywhere in asia where once you fuck up even once you are fucked for life

the U.S. has something of a 3-strike law, though this depends on the quantity you are caught with. I know in New York, if its more than an ounce, it can be considered an immediate felony if its not your first time, though anything less, like say a gram for instance, would be just a misdemeanor, which at worse is 18months jail time, or just a couple months and some hefty fines. Mostly depends on the judges mood.

Typically though, you can get caught with an ounce or more the first time, and its an immediate between 1.5 to 3 years. Second time is typically 10 though its pretty common for people to get out in 5 for good behavior as long as they weren't sentenced for anything else besides possession. Though for dealers caught selling, this opens up a whole other variety of factors determining sentencing that I'm not interested in getting into. A third time is where the major time gets brought in. 15 to 20 years though most judges will try and work with you if your not considered a violent individual, which again depends on the "personal factor" which is different for each defendant. You WILL do 10 years at the very minimum however and typically no less than 3 on parole,

Of course, money goes quite a big ways into getting a sentence reduced. People like to pretend otherwise, and they'll argue and call you a liar or ask for proof, which is the stupidest thing to ask for in situations such as these since that is a potential risk to one's life, but I've personally witnessed quite a few financial transactions on the down-low that somehow changed people's initial sentencing to much less. On one occasion, 20 years was reduced to 2 years inside and 3 on parole outside for the hefty sum of half a mil. American's justice system can be bought for the right price if you know who to ask and understand the proper channels and etiquette. Don't EVER let anyone else ever tell you any different.

 

[someguysomeone]

cultivation and ascension might as well be a metaphor for social mobility

the U.S. has something of a 3-strike law, though this depends on the quantity you are caught with. I know in New York, if its more than an ounce, it can be considered an immediate felony if its not your first time, though anything less, like say a gram for instance, would be just a misdemeanor, which at worse is 18months jail time, or just a couple months and some hefty fines. Mostly depends on the judges mood.

Typically though, you can get caught with an ounce or more the first time, and its an immediate between 1.5 to 3 years. Second time is typically 10 though its pretty common for people to get out in 5 for good behavior as long as they weren't sentenced for anything else besides possession. Third charge is where the major time gets brought in. 15 years at a minimum on up to 25 and everything in between. You WILL do 10 years at the very minimum and spend at least 3 years on parole if you manage to somehow get out in 10, which is a big major "if" since it's still pretty rare.

Of course, money goes quite a big ways into getting a sentence reduced. People like to pretend otherwise, and they'll argue and call you a liar, but I've personally witnessed quite a few financial transactions on the down-low that somehow changed people's initial sentencing to much less. On one occasion, 20 years was reduced to 2 years inside and 3 on parole outside for the hefty sum of half a mil. American's justice system can be bought for the right price if you know who to ask and understand the proper channels and etiquette. Don't EVER let anyone else ever tell you any different.

bro I understand how shit America is.
you know evergreening.copyright. nepotism. monopolies everywhere. bad unions. no labor laws.
it's not even capitalism cause of monopolies.
oh the best part look up definition of bribery and lobbying
bribery:dishonestly persuade (someone) to act in one's favour by a gift of money or other inducement.

lobbying
seek to influence (a legislator) on an issue by paying him.

some people may say we have no choice.
but we can simply put a maximum cap on how much a single person can lobby.
like 10$ per person.
this way parties would need to ask for money from millions of people instead of just the rich.
which would distribute power better.
I mean just implementing max cap on how much a single person can lobby and then using alternative voting would literally solve most of the problems.
it's so obvious I can't believe no one before me has ever thought about it.
there are no videos on youtube about this suggestion.
like when I thought it I genuinely thought am I dumb or is the world dumb and missing something very obvious. how come I never heard of this

 

[Discount_Blade]

cultivation and ascension might as well be a metaphor for social mobility

bro I understand how shit America is.
you know evergreening.copyright. nepotism. monopolies everywhere. bad unions. no labor laws.
it's not even capitalism cause of monopolies.
oh the best part look up definition of bribery and lobbying
bribery:dishonestly persuade (someone) to act in one's favour by a gift of money or other inducement.

lobbying
seek to influence (a legislator) on an issue by paying him.

some people may say we have no choice.
but we can simply put a maximum cap on how much a single person can lobby.
like 10$ per person.
this way parties would need to ask for money from millions of people instead of just the rich.
which would distribute power better.
I mean just implementing max cap on how much a single person can lobby and then using alternative voting would literally solve most of the problems.
it's so obvious I can't believe no one before me has ever thought about it.
there are no videos on youtube about this suggestion.
like when I thought it I genuinely thought am I dumb or is the world dumb and missing something very obvious. how come I never heard of this

idk. I think voting is useless. The problem is, America is NOT a democracy. A person's vote does not matter. We are a Republic, which means the average person does not have a major weigh-in on whose is or isn't in power and elected. This "Democracy" claim has never been anything more than a claim, a false one, that has been very persistently used for political purposes and people have eaten that shit up, hook, line, and sinker.

The real voters are the electoral college. Each state has a stake in it, but the thing people don't realize is, the electorals DOES NOT have to vote the same as what their state did. Their is no written law that states they have to. So essentially, America is a Quasi-Oligarchic Republic or some other weird mutant, masquerading and pretending to be a Democracy.

 

[someguysomeone]

idk. I think voting is useless. The problem is, America is NOT a democracy. A person's vote does not matter. We are a Republic, which means the average person does not have a major weigh-in on whose is or isn't in power and elected. This "Democracy" claim has never been anything more than a claim, a false one, that has been very persistently used for political purposes and people have eaten that shit up, hook, line, and sinker.

The real voters are the electoral college. Each state has a stake in it, but the thing people don't realize is, the electorals DOES NOT have to vote the same as what their state did. Their is no written law that states they have to. So essentially, America is a Quasi-Oligarchic Republic or some other weird mutant, masquerading and pretending to be a Democracy.

voting isn't useless you just have a bad two party system instead of single transferable vote.
No parties actually represent the views of majority.
And new parties can't rise cause well ads are hard and no one wants there vote to go to waste.
Google spoiler effect

 

[TheTrinary]

Well... ever since WWII, the japs are always fucked in the head, tentacle hentai and anime... so yeah...

Even their school is fucked up with high stress due to emphass on going to the best university = a good life.

A lot of the current Japanese cultural issues stem back far far before WWII. I mean, just look at WWII itself. People like to talk about the Holocaust but Japan went for quality over quantity in terms of just pure evil. And it's not like that is unrelated. There's been a rigid collectivism to the Japanese for hundreds of years. It shows in different ways but the work environment is one.

idk. I think voting is useless. The problem is, America is NOT a democracy. A person's vote does not matter. We are a Republic, which means the average person does not have a major weigh-in on whose is or isn't in power and elected. This "Democracy" claim has never been anything more than a claim, a false one, that has been very persistently used for political purposes and people have eaten that shit up, hook, line, and sinker.

The real voters are the electoral college. Each state has a stake in it, but the thing people don't realize is, the electorals DOES NOT have to vote the same as what their state did. Their is no written law that states they have to. So essentially, America is a Quasi-Oligarchic Republic or some other weird mutant, masquerading and pretending to be a Democracy.

A representative democracy is still a democracy. The idea that a Republic means you don't have a choice on who is and isn't elected is asinine. That's what the entire process is. And hell, Trump is a pretty good representation of that. The only way that man ends up in charge is if he can con the masses. He was president because enough people came together and said so. Democracy

The electoral college is theoretically undemocratic, but in practice they vote how their constituents vote. I'm not advocating for it and I do think we should abolish it, but let's not pretend like that invalidates everything. You have to find very rare and specific places where that has been the case. 99.99% of the time, America is a democracy.