Japanese salarymen work to death and never see their families
This is one of those little factoids that seem to never really go away. If you look at working hours surveys, Japan is actually pretty average in terms of hours worked:
This is not to say that there aren't many workers being exploited by their employers with crushing working hours, and there's some methodological problems with these surveys sometimes, but according to the best data we have this stereotype isn't necessarily true.
The part about the reactionary right wing government is spot on though.
Yeah, they call it "power harassment" and it often goes hand in hand with terrible working conditions and overtime at so-called "black companies".
A new law recently came into effect to combat it, but only time will tell how well it works.
But anyway, my point is kind of that there are certainly a lot of terrible companies there but there are also normal companies and even some good companies (within the limits of capitalism ofc). I just feel that the common western perception of working in Japan is that everything is a black company, which is certainly not true.
What are the origins of the myth? Is it 1980s Western anxieties about being economically outperformed by a new global superpower? Or was the Japanese media just more willing to focus on the problem of overwork than other countries?
If you look at the data working hours have been declining steadily over the years. It could be the case that this is just old news that refuses to die because there's no clicks in updating it.
Incidentally, I think this is a big part of why the similarly flawed perception of Japan as the suicide capital of the world continues to spread, despite the stats telling us that Japan is fairly normal.
Another part if the reason could be that there have been several prominent cases of people literally dropping dead due to overwork, which reinforces the perception that this is a uniquely Japanese phenomenon. You only have to look at the people working to death or mental breakdowns in finance and legal roles in London and NYC to see that its not uniquely Japanese.
The last part of it I can think of is that a lot of the exploitative companies are in the English "education" sector, where most English speakers in Japan will have first hand experience. Because of the language barrier, its very easy for disgruntled English "teachers" to spread the image that this is the way Japan is for everyone.
Never done it personally but from my friends who do, all the private eikaiwas are basically black as shit because their fundamental business model is exploiting disposable foreign labor.
Dispatch Assistant Language Teacher positions also have a reputation for being shady and black.
That said, most English industry positions aren't black in terms of overtime because they want to keep you 1 hour under the limit for full time benefits. They are black in terms of denying you benefits, treating you like shit, and being hives of power abuse and sexual harassment.
Oh, and theres a very good chance that you'll be the only foreign staff member who's not an ethnonationalist chud.
If you're planning to go as a gap year or something, then yeah it's an easy way of putting food on the table. Grit your teeth and bear it.
If you want to make a career of it, absolutely get qualified as a proper teacher and try to find a job at a private school or even university before you go.
This is one of those little factoids that seem to never really go away. If you look at working hours surveys, Japan is actually pretty average in terms of hours worked:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_annual_labor_hours
This is not to say that there aren't many workers being exploited by their employers with crushing working hours, and there's some methodological problems with these surveys sometimes, but according to the best data we have this stereotype isn't necessarily true.
The part about the reactionary right wing government is spot on though.
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Yeah, they call it "power harassment" and it often goes hand in hand with terrible working conditions and overtime at so-called "black companies".
A new law recently came into effect to combat it, but only time will tell how well it works.
But anyway, my point is kind of that there are certainly a lot of terrible companies there but there are also normal companies and even some good companies (within the limits of capitalism ofc). I just feel that the common western perception of working in Japan is that everything is a black company, which is certainly not true.
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What are the origins of the myth? Is it 1980s Western anxieties about being economically outperformed by a new global superpower? Or was the Japanese media just more willing to focus on the problem of overwork than other countries?
Hard for me to say tbh.
If you look at the data working hours have been declining steadily over the years. It could be the case that this is just old news that refuses to die because there's no clicks in updating it.
Incidentally, I think this is a big part of why the similarly flawed perception of Japan as the suicide capital of the world continues to spread, despite the stats telling us that Japan is fairly normal.
Another part if the reason could be that there have been several prominent cases of people literally dropping dead due to overwork, which reinforces the perception that this is a uniquely Japanese phenomenon. You only have to look at the people working to death or mental breakdowns in finance and legal roles in London and NYC to see that its not uniquely Japanese.
The last part of it I can think of is that a lot of the exploitative companies are in the English "education" sector, where most English speakers in Japan will have first hand experience. Because of the language barrier, its very easy for disgruntled English "teachers" to spread the image that this is the way Japan is for everyone.
I’m looking to teach English in Japan. What are some red flags for black companies?
Never done it personally but from my friends who do, all the private eikaiwas are basically black as shit because their fundamental business model is exploiting disposable foreign labor.
Dispatch Assistant Language Teacher positions also have a reputation for being shady and black.
That said, most English industry positions aren't black in terms of overtime because they want to keep you 1 hour under the limit for full time benefits. They are black in terms of denying you benefits, treating you like shit, and being hives of power abuse and sexual harassment.
Oh, and theres a very good chance that you'll be the only foreign staff member who's not an ethnonationalist chud.
If you're planning to go as a gap year or something, then yeah it's an easy way of putting food on the table. Grit your teeth and bear it.
If you want to make a career of it, absolutely get qualified as a proper teacher and try to find a job at a private school or even university before you go.
white talk about non-white = 90% wrong