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work-life balance

Japan’s fourth-biggest prefecture eyes four-day workweek, but will that schedule work?

There’s no such thing as a free lunch, and the extra day off comes at a price.

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Japanese company gives paid vacation to attend idol concerts, e-sport tournaments, other fan events

Oshi kyuka will be good for employees and the customers they serve, boss says.

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What’s the best way to close the gender gap in Japan? Japanese women weigh in

The top answer will not surprise you at all.

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One of Japan’s largest financial companies offers four-day weekend plan for all employees

Mizuho employees will get to chose how much they want to work.

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How to get your kids to hate video games, according to Japanese Twitter

A Twitter user compiled these hints to make your kids loathe gaming — and includes a handy bonus moral for all ages.

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Microsoft Japan’s experiment with 3-day weekend boosts worker productivity by 40 percent

As it turns out, not squeezing employees dry like a sponge is maybe a good thing.

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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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“My dad is less useful than our Roomba”—Japanese 5th-grader’s brutal honesty on family in Japan

If your child has a better relationship with the robotic vacuum cleaner than with you, then you might have a problem.

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Study suggests Japanese workers are deeply distrustful of their employers

A study found that workers in Japan distrust their employers significantly more than workers in the US, UK, Canada and Australia do. 

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5 reasons why Japanese expats say “sayonara” to their homeland for good

Japan may be an awesome country, but for some Japanese people who’ve experienced life abroad, it’s just not for them anymore. Here are five reasons why.

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Despite their hardworking image, are the Japanese really just as lazy as the rest of us?

Workers in Japan are often perceived by the rest of the world as possessing an extremely strong work ethic, which drives them to daily acts of unpaid overtime, selfless sacrifice of rightfully accrued holiday time, and occasionally even to karoushi, or death by overwork. So pervasive is this perception that the image of the exhausted salaryman splayed out across train carriage floors after a hard day’s work has become a sort of unofficial symbol of Japanese working life.

But what people who have actually worked in Japanese offices will tell you is that, while simply existing in the strict hierarchical system of a Japanese workplace can be an exhausting feat in and of itself, it doesn’t necessarily mean that everybody’s getting loads of work done. In fact, Japanese workers may be just as lazy as the rest of us. So how come everybody still thinks they work so hard?

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Late to bed, early to rise: Statistics suggest Japan seriously skimps on sleep

It’s a stereotype about Japan that most people are familiar with – the Japanese work hard, give their lives to the company, and stay at work until after the boss has gone home. It’s a country where karoushi, or death from overwork, is a commonly-used buzzword. While some people might argue that the Japanese don’t actually work any harder than those in the west, it certainly seems that they’re working longer hours than the rest of us.

But as a consequence, how much sleep are they getting?

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