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Eriko Sekiguchi stands at a crossroad of business
district in Tokyo on Jan. 21, 2015. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
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This is one story one would have been more excited to be about Nigerian workers! Can you imagine someone dying from too much work in Nigeria? That picture cannot even come to mind! But apparently the Japanese take their work that seriously!
This story is carried by Associated Press:
College-educated and gainfully employed 36-year-old
Eriko Sekiguchi should be a sought after friend or date, planning nights on the
town and faraway resort vacations. But she works in Japan, a nation where
workaholic habits die hard.
Often toiling 14 hours a day for a major trading
company, including early morning meetings and after-hours "settai,"
or networking with clients, she used just eight of her 20 paid vacation days
last year. Six of those days were for being sick.
"Nobody else uses their vacation days," said
Sekiguchi, who was so busy her interview with The Associated Press had to be
rescheduled several times before she could pop out of the office.
The government wants to change all that.
Legislation that will be submitted during the
parliamentary session that began Jan. 26 aims to ensure workers get the rest
they need. In a break with past practice, it will become the legal
responsibility of employers to ensure workers take their holidays.
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Commuters walk through a train station during a
morning rush hour in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara, File)
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Japan has been studying such legislation for years.
There has been more impetus for change since 2012 as a consensus developed that
the health, social and productivity costs of Japan's extreme work ethic were
too high.
Part of the problem has been that many people fear
resentment from co-workers if they take days off, a real concern in a
conformist culture that values harmony.
After all, in Japan, only wimps use up all their
vacation days.
Most of the affected workers are "salarymen"
or "OL" for office lady like Sekiguchi, so dedicated to their jobs
they can't seem to go home. They are the stereotypes of, and the power behind,
Japan Inc.
That has come with its social costs. Sekiguchi worries
she will never get married or even find a boyfriend, unless he happens to be in
the office. She wishes companies would simply shut down now and then to allow
workers to take days off without qualms.
The workaholic lifestyle and related reluctance of
couples to raise children have long been blamed as a factor behind the
nose-diving birth rate that's undermining the world's third biggest economy.
Working literally to death is a tragedy so common that
a term has been coined for it: "karoshi." The government estimates
there are 200 karoshi deaths a year from causes such as heart attacks or
cerebral hemorrhaging after working long hours. It's aware of many cases of
mental depression and suicides from overwork not counted as karoshi.
About 22 percent of Japanese work more than 49 hours a
week, compared with 16 percent of Americans, 11 percent of the French and
Germans, according to data compiled by the Japanese government. South Koreans
seem even more workaholic, at 35 percent.
Barely half the vacation days allotted to Japanese
workers are ever taken, an average of nine days per individual a year.
The problem in Japan in some ways parallels the
situation of American workers, many of whom don't get guaranteed paid vacations
at all. But those who get them usually do take all or most of them.
Japanese must use their vacations for sick days,
although a separate law guarantees two-thirds of their wages if they get
seriously ill and take extended days off.
That means workers save two or three vacation days for
fear of catching a cold or some other minor illness so they can stay home, said
Yuu Wakebe, the health and labor ministry official overseeing such standards.
Wakebe himself routinely does 100 hours of overtime a
month, and took only five days off last year, one of them for staying home with
a cold. He managed to take a vacation to Hawaii with his family.
"It is actually a worker's right to take paid
vacations," he said. "But working in Japan involves quite a lot of a
volunteer spirit."
Younger workers feel uncomfortable going home before
their bosses do. Working overtime for free, called "sah-bee-soo
zahn-gyo," or "service overtime," is prevalent.
Job descriptions also tend to be vague, especially in
white-collar occupations, meaning a person not coming in translates to more
work for others in his or her team.
The new law will allow for more flexible work hours,
encouraging parents to spend more time with their children during summer
months, for instance, when school is closed.
Although Japan is notorious for hard work, it's
equally known for inefficiency and bureaucracy. Workers sit around in the name
of team spirit, despite questionable performance and productivity.
Experts say the law is a start, while acknowledging
the roots of the dilemma lie deep.
When night falls in Tokyo, groups of dark-suited
salarymen can be seen, drinking at drab lantern-bobbing pubs under the train
tracks, unwinding before heading home. They laugh, guzzle down their beers and
pick at charcoal-broiled fish.
Ask any of them: they haven't taken many days off. One
said the 12 days he took off last year were too many.
Regulating time off might be easier to implement if the
economy improves under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's anti-deflationary policies
that weakened the yen, a plus for giant exporters such as Toyota Motor Corp.
The overwork problem intensified during the past two
decades of economic stagnation in Japan. The use of cheap labor became common
to stay competitive in a rapidly globalizing economy, while the culture of
loyalty to the company stayed.
Abe, not a person noted for taking long vacations, has
been stressing the need for change.
Japan's work ethic, he said, is "a culture that
falsely beatifies long hours."
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