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salarymen

Meet the Japanese salarymen who defy gravity in a Tokyo park during lunchtime

Salarymen with superhero strength band together to form a horizontal bar club.

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Long-running manga character is heavily implied to have COVID-19 in latest issue

Manga readers are concerned about the fate of Kosaku Shima, whose corporate developments they’ve been following since 1983.

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One Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask scene is less zany, much sadder to adults, salaryman learns

Postman, we’re sorry for laughing at you.

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Is work more important to Japanese salarymen than their girlfriends? Survey investigates

”Which is more important, your job, or me?”

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Weightlifting is Japanese salarymen’s newest hobby, report says, since “Muscles won’t betray you”

Lead researcher says pumping iron gives salarymen a joy “that they can’t get from work.”

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Overworked Japanese employees mourn unused paid holidays at new Buddhist memorial service

Workaholics asked to address this senseless loss in a country where taking paid leave is frowned upon.

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English reactions to A Day in the Life of a Japanese Salaryman video sadden Japanese netizens

Many were depressed by some of the comments made by overseas YouTube users who found the workday in the video long and tiresome.

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Sayonara, smelly salarymen! Japanese company develops self-smell-checking device

Handheld device sniffs pits and other smelly parts, assigns numerical stank ranking.

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Salaryman with sick wife pulls no punches in verbal smackdown of boss who won’t let him go home

Think Japanese businessmen don’t care about their wives? This one does, and he’s got no time for anyone keeping him from taking care of her.

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“The one and only way to make people in Japan take more vacation time”

Our veteran salaryman-turned-reporter gives his idea for the one thing that has to change before Japan will stop working itself to death.

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Up to 40 percent of Japanese men can’t sleep because of work

A new survey reveals that a startling number of Japanese workers are literally losing sleep over their stressful jobs.

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Labels the country’s schools as stifling “salaryman training facilities.”

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Top 11 tweets to make you feel glad you don’t work in Japan

It’s no secret that working in Japan can be pretty miserable. Long hours, unpaid overtime, power harassment, and mandatory drinking parties with coworkers are just some of the factors that contribute to workers all over Japan leading stressful lives.

But misery loves company, so that’s why we present the top 11 tweets to make you feel glad you don’t work in Japan. Some of them are attempts at encouragement, some of them are commiserating, and some of them are so painfully sad that you can’t help but cry. So read on and see how your own work compares to Japan!

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Fear of failure could be behind the extremely low happiness rate among Japanese men

Recently the world got a look at the busy world of salarymen in Japan via a viral video, but there were also some slight reassurances that these company men didn’t necessarily hate their lives. We may have been a bit too optimistic, however, because a study done last year found that less than 30 percent of Japanese man can confidently say, “I am happy.” Well… that’s some statistic.

What’s behind the unhappiness factor among Japanese men? Bad marriages, work problems, convenience store diets? Accomplished Japanese author Reiko Yuyama gives her two yen on the root of the problem.

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According to a 2012 survey of 2,000 Shinsei Bank employees, the average worker now spends 510 yen (US $5.79) on lunch every day. That’s down from 710 yen (US $8.06) in 2001 and 600 yen (US $6.81) in 2007. That’s a 30% decrease in twelve years.

Nikkan Spa, a popular magazine in Japan, conducted its own survey and found an even bleaker outcome. In a survey of 100 salarymen (office workers) and public servants in their 30s and 40s, a surprising 64 percent of workers admitted that they spend 500 yen (US $5.67) or less on lunch. An even more astonishing 24 percent of workers get by on just 250 yen (US $2.84) a day.

A measly 250 yen (US $2.84) won’t even buy a beef bowl at Sukiya, famed to be the cheapest lunch around. If these salarymen can’t even afford the cheapest meals available for purchase, what exactly are they eating? Let’s take a peek inside the slimmed-down lunchboxes of Japan’s typical worker.

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