Karōshi: overworking in Japan

19 Aug, 2023

The first thing I noticed upon arriving in Tokyo, taking the train from the airport at 8:30AM on a Tuesday, was how exhausted everyone looked. Immediately, a younger girl was nearly falling asleep on my shoulder. What’s up with that?

I looked it up - it’s well-known and well-studied, although it doesn’t seem to be improving terribly quickly. It’s called “karōshi”, e.g. “death from overwork”, and it’s been a problem in Japan since at least the 1970s. The government even has a way to qualify as karōshi: if a (likely young or otherwise healthy) person dies from cardiovascular disease (stroke, heart failure, etc.) or mental health (suicide, maybe alcoholism?), and had worked more than 80 hours of overtime in a month (approx. 4 extra hours a day), it’s karōshi.

Some quick stats I found:

In 2018, workers only took 52.4% of the paid leave to which they were entitled to.
“22.7% of companies polled between December 2015 and January 2016 said some of their employees logged more than 80 hours of overtime each month – the official threshold at which the prospect of death from work becomes serious.”
“The report added that approximately 21.3% of Japanese employees work 49 or more hours each week on average, well above the 16.4% reported in the US, 12.5 % in Britain and 10.4% in France.”
“Japan’s managers were rated the least likely to approve worker leave in a study surveying 19 countries”

Overworking seems pretty deeply embedded into the culture. From one article:

“When asked about colleagues’ reactions to taking time off, he adds: “They would react negatively. They will not say anything directly to that person but they will speak ill of that person behind their back. I have never seen any colleague taking all of their paid holidays. There is a culture where you would be evaluated higher if you are not taking days off and working harder. People think taking days off is a bad thing.”

And more:

While Western society is individualistic and non-hierarchical, Japanese society is collectivist and hierarchical," explains Hiroshi Ono, professor of human resources management at Hitotsubashi University, who specialises in Japan’s work culture. “Thus, many people refrain from taking holiday because their bosses do not take holiday, or they are afraid that it will disrupt the group harmony”

This culture is slowly changing - younger generations are pushing back, and the government has actually stepped in (despite being a conservative country and government - that’s how a big a problem it is!). The 2018 Work Style Reform Law from Shinzo Abe capped overtime to 80 hours per month, required uptake of paid leave, among other things. But the government recognizes that 80 hours of overtime per month can be deadly, but allows companies to go right up to it, and even allows exemptions up to 100 hours! So it’s something, but not great. Companies don’t even keep track of hours worked, and so a lot of extra labor isn’t even accounted for.

They also tried “Premium Fridays” - half a day off on the last Friday of each month. But it failed and was kind of laughed at. Similarly with “blacklist companies”: a list naming and shaming companies who flout labor laws - didn’t do much.

In 2019, there was even a Buddhist kuyo ceremony called “Yukyu Joko” to mourn unused holiday time! Lanterns were lit, a Buddhist monk oversaw it, and people floated away quotes describing how overwork had gotten to them. Check out how sad these are:

“My child’s birthday party was delayed by seven months”
“I could not say goodbye to my grandparents after they died”
“I reached retirement age without using 90% of leave every year”
“My first child was born as I was polishing off a hamburger on a golf course in Houston.”
“I yelled at my friend: ‘Which is more important to you, your friend or your company!!!’ At first, he replied: “Sorry, I can’t choose,” which was followed by a long silence just like a certain famous quiz show, but then he said: “My company,” and that was the end of our friendship.”

Even sleeping in public, or “sleeping while present” e.g. “inemuri”, can be seen as diligence and dedication! This is what I saw en masse on the train. Some quotes about this:

One reason public sleeping may be so common in Japan is that people get so little sleep at home. A 2015 government study found that 39.5 percent of Japanese adults slept less than six hours a night."

And even worse:

An unwritten rule of inemuri is to sleep compactly, without “violating spatial norms,” Professor Bestor said. “If you stretched out under the table in the office conference room, or took up several spaces on the train, or laid out on a park bench,” he said, that would draw reproach for being socially disruptive."

I looked up some stuff about productivity and hours worked per country while reading about this. Generally, people in poorer countries tend to work a LOT more hours, because their hours are “less productive”, e.g. contribute less to GDP or contribute less to their ability to just survive and get by. Thus this horrifying quote:

It means that residents of today’s poorer countries like Cambodia and Myanmar — and also of today’s richer countries in the past when they were poor — are not just consumption poor, often unable to afford necessities like food and medicine. It means they are also leisure poor: because productivity is low and they must work so much just to scrape by, they can’t afford to spend much time improving their condition, becoming educated, or simply enjoying leisure time."

The US does seem to work more than other countries with similar productivity levels, but Japan actually works less (as of 2019) than similar countries like South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. But these are all gross estimates.

Sources:

#Travel