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Working long hours is a way of life in Japan, so some people die from time to time. Karoshi is a word that means death by overwork. Now why do people work so hard and can't be fixed? Japan has some of the longest working hours in the world. About a quarter of Japanese companies have their employees working more than 80 hours overtime a month. Those extra hours are usually unpaid. Today, Japanese corporate culture is dominated by so-called payrolls. A earner is defined by his or her loyalty to his or her company and is expected to spend all of his or her time working for the same company. Not only does he work long hours in the office, but he is also thought to be taking part in after-hours activities, such as drinking with his colleagues. And they do not take enough time to rest. 


In 2017, another study found that to reduce the right to 20 days a year, Japanese workers left 10 of those days unused - to open up all other countries in the study. You do not have to be in the middle of a corporate wall to feel the impact of the culture of its work. It's 3:00 Thursday morning right here in Tokyo, in the Ginza area. Every few minutes I see a man in a suit, carrying a bag. The nation's performance has reverted to what has been described as Japan's economic miracle, which was a spectacular economic growth that began in the 1950s, which moved it to become the world's second largest economy. Within Japanese companies, culture emphasizes the success of the company as a whole that it is more important than any one individual, which may explain why one study found that 63% of Japanese feel guilty about taking paid leave. 


But maybe something else about this: Long working hours does not mean high productivity. In fact, Japan has the lowest production among G7 nations. Earlier I mentioned the term karoshi - meaning death by overwork. It is officially recognized by the government and is often marked by heart disease, stroke or suicide due to stress. Hundreds of karoshi cases are reported each year, although some argue that these cases have been reported and that the actual number could exceed ten times that number. An employee of the advertising company Dentsu jumped to his death in 2015. The cause is said to be depressive disorder caused by overwork. The case has received widespread attention and renewed calls to change long working hours and overtime unpaid overtime periods that are very common in Japan. The company was fined for violating employee policies because it was reportedly forced to work more than 100 hours overtime a month. The chief executive of the company even offered a position on the controversy. After his death, a major change for Dentsu within the company. One of them? Office lights now turn off at 10 o'clock every night with the intention of forcing employees to leave. Both the government and companies are now actively trying to reduce the number of working hours here. And there are early signs of hope. 


The Japanese government is looking at a number of ways to limit the number of hours spent in office, including making it mandatory to take at least five days off a year and require a period of "rest" between the end of one day and the start of another. In 2016, a new “Mountain Day” was launched, bringing the total number of Japanese public holidays to 16. And in 2017, the government introduced a program called Premium Fridays, in which it encouraged companies to allow their employees to leave at 3pm on the last Friday of the month, to encourage consumer spending and less office time. But one study found that less than 4% of Japanese workers actually leave early on the first Friday of the Premium. That is why despite these initiatives, the cultural challenge remains. As Japanese culture emphasizes the party over the individual, well, no one wants to be the first to leave office. And there is another reason why there is so much pressure on people to work hard. Japan's economy is in jeopardy. And in order to maintain its maximum size, Japan needs to install hours. 


Japan lost its place as the world's second largest economy to China in 2011, a topic it has held for 42 years. Japan is facing labor issues. The population is growing rapidly and its birth rate is unstable. That means the total population is declining. And in the next 50 years, it is expected to shrink by about a third. People are expected to go from 127 million in 2015, to only 88 million by 2065. There are two possible ways in which the nation can pay for the shortage of workers - immigrants or robots. Japan has always been less inclined to accept immigrants. In fact, the percentage of foreign workers is very small compared to other nations with a large economy. So with the exception of many immigrants, it looks like robots are filling a gap. Its robotic industry has cut across the importation of travelers to production, and it is now reaching out to farms by creating robots that milk cows. But it remains to be seen whether technology will open the door to better health in the workplace of the Japanese people.