Amazing Japanese Work Culture
- Thread starter Arrowfoot
- Start date
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raleighnut
Legendary Member
- Location
- One of the 'Elite'
Thanks for posting that, @Arrowfoot. I enjoyed my mini-trip to Japan! 
Andy in Germany
Guru
- Location
- Freiburg im Breisgau
I remember being alone in Beautiful wife's family house on my first time in Japan: because of the low crime rates they would leave the door open, and delivery staff would open the door and call for someone to sign. One morning this happened and the poor lad was confronted with yours truly who didn't speak Japanese and had only the vaguest idea of what to do...
Andy in Germany
Guru
- Location
- Freiburg im Breisgau
Yes, but I didn't know about them on that morning so I just initialled the package in the "stamp here" space.
Getting our British surname into a registrable Hanko stamp in Japanese was a bit of a faff.
- Location
- Somewhere wet & hilly in NW England.
Interesting Clip but what a horrible job if she has to repeat that over and over.
Andy in Germany
Guru
- Location
- Freiburg im Breisgau
Indeed, that's the flip side. What opportunities are there for delivery drivers to have a different life is they want one? Probably not many, and that applies to European and British drivers too.
DRM
Guru
- Location
- West Yorks
It’d blow her mind to see a day in the life of a self employed courier in Britain, with a clapped out old van and 200+ deliveries a day
cookiemonster
Legendary Member
- Location
- Hong Kong
Japan's work ethic looks great but not for those who actually do the work. The work culture is brutal and is one of the reason why Japan's population is ageing and dropping. Very few young people in Japan are willing to have families as they're so knackered. None of my friends in Osaka and Sapporo will have more than one kid, but they all want more. Japan could be going through quite the baby boom if it did what Korea did a few years ago, introduce a maximum working week.
The service is superb but there is a very dark side to it. One of the highest rates of strokes and heart attacks in the world and all due to work pressures.
The service is superb but there is a very dark side to it. One of the highest rates of strokes and heart attacks in the world and all due to work pressures.
Oldhippy
Cynical idealist
Very true Cookie, a Japanese friend of mine back in touring days worked for record company and he felt obliged on the company's behalf to be available 24/7. He ended up in hospital with exhaustion and got a bollocking for letting the company down from his superior. He apologised profusely for this. He actually felt ashamed he hadn't been stronger. Very sad.
Indeed. Our parent company is Japanese, and I've had situations where I would be working at seven or eight in the evening trying to finish something with a Japanese colleague who was in the office in Japan, so well past midnight for them, which is not unusual there.Japan's work ethic looks great but not for those who actually do the work. The work culture is brutal and is one of the reason why Japan's population is ageing and dropping. Very few young people in Japan are willing to have families as they're so knackered. None of my friends in Osaka and Sapporo will have more than one kid, but they all want more. Japan could be going through quite the baby boom if it did what Korea did a few years ago, introduce a maximum working week.
The service is superb but there is a very dark side to it. One of the highest rates of strokes and heart attacks in the world and all due to work pressures.
Our Japanese colleagues get a chance to spend two or three years seconded to one of the international branches. Without exception the ones that I have met have said that they were not looking forward to going back to Japan. Korea and China, and to some extent India, have similar brutal work cultures.
Japan's work ethic looks great but not for those who actually do the work. The work culture is brutal and is one of the reason why Japan's population is ageing and dropping. Very few young people in Japan are willing to have families as they're so knackered. None of my friends in Osaka and Sapporo will have more than one kid, but they all want more. Japan could be going through quite the baby boom if it did what Korea did a few years ago, introduce a maximum working week.
The service is superb but there is a very dark side to it. One of the highest rates of strokes and heart attacks in the world and all due to work pressures.
Karoshi (過労死, Karōshi), which can be translated literally as "overwork death", is a Japanese term relating to occupational sudden mortality. The most common medical causes of karoshi deaths are heart attacks or strokes due to stress and a starvation diet. Mental stress from the workplace can also cause karoshi through workers taking their own lives. People who commit suicide due to overwork are called karōjisatsu (過労自殺). The phenomenon of death by overwork is also widespread in other parts of Asia. 745,194 deaths worldwide were attributable to long working hours in 2016, based on WHO/ILO data.[1
