Death by Overwork

As I look forward to an extraordinarily long holiday (three weeks off), I also feel a bit guilty. Japanese workers simply do not get that kind of time off; just the other day, my hairdresser was lamenting having only two days off for the New Year holidays (the 1st and 2nd).

This is a culture where hard work is respected highly, where slacking off is frowned on, and taking a holiday is fairly unheard of. Very often, company culture endorses service zangyo (サービス残業） - 'voluntary' unpaid overtime that workers are more or less forced to do; employees have been known to work more eighty hours a month overtime. We occasionally read in the news about someone literally dying from overworking - there is even a word for 'death by overwork': karoushi　（過労死）.

In recent years, after several companies (including Toyota) were successfully sued for causing karoushi, some companies have tried to reduce the amount of overtime (both paid and 'voluntary'). Because leaving the office at five o'clock is seen as slacking off, many employees experience pressure to stay, and it is bad form to leave before the boss. So, these companies have adopted procedures to force people to leave on time at least one day a week. For example, it may be one person's job to go through the company and force people to leave if they are still there; another strategy that's been adopted is to require the employee to first get permission to stay late, and then to write a report about why exactly he had to work late.

Not bad tactics, and while some men enjoy the chance to get home early, typically he is obliged to participate in a company party which is, of course, held on the day of the week when everyone finishes 'early'!!

For more information, check out the Wikipedia article here at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kar%C5%8Dshi
or
the Economist article here at http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10329261