Why Japan’s overwork problem needs to be fixed right now
Japan’s workforce is tired — very tired. Notorious for its intense work culture, people are struggling with the ridiculous pressure companies can put on them.
Last year, The Guardian reported one in five people are at risk of death from overwork, with 22.7% of companies reporting that some of its employees clocked over 80 hours of overwork every month — the official limit at which it can have serious medical implications.
The problem has been around since the 1970s, eventually even coining a dedicated term — 過労死 or karōshi, which literally means death from overwork. Most karōshi deaths are due to strokes and heart attacks, but also includes a staggering amount of suicides. One of them made waves in the international press.
Matsuri Takahashi was 24 when she joined Japanese advertising giant Dentsu in early 2015, but soon fell victim to the company’s intense working schedule, clocking in many hours of overwork. One of the messages she tweeted out during her employment:
It’s 4 o’clock. My body is trembling … I just can’t do this. I’m gonna die. I’m so tired.
A couple of weeks later she took her own life.
Dentsu’s president resigned, the case got international news coverage and still Japan’s government was turning a blind eye.
A solution that’s not a solution
But that time has come to an end with the government’s development of Premium Friday. The initiative is meant to push companies to let workers finish at 3PM on the last Friday of every month, so they can go out and have some well-deserved downtime.
The campaign launched with a big media push on the last Friday of February, finally offering some real hope to put a substantial dent in the overwork culture.
It turns out, however, that only 3.7% of workers in the Tokyo area were actually able to leave work early. Only a small percentage of companies were participating in the program, once again keeping most people stuck in the office until late at night. What happened?
The problem
Premium Friday is a great idea on paper, but two major issues keep it from actually changing much.
- It’s an opt-in program
- Japanese companies don’t see the value of happy employees
Most companies outside of Japan try to keep its employees happy and healthy. In Amsterdam, where I live, people generally work 40 hours per week, leaving enough time to spend on their private lives. Additionally, employers often provide a bike commuting program and a fitness program to ensure they stay fit.
As a result, Dutch people are some of the happiest in the world. And it’s a sound investment for the company — it’s been proven time and time again that happier employees work harder.
In Tokyo, however, time equals money. Working long hours isn’t just expected, it’s ingrained in the culture of every company.
When I was living in Tokyo, I would constantly see visibly exhausted people everywhere. When taking the last subway home after a fun night, you’re surrounded by commuters dozing off on their way home.
And those are the lucky ones — it’s common for employees to be be forced into going out for drinks after work, too. Ever heard of a capsule hotel? They were popularized by workers that needed a place to sleep after missing the last train home, only to return to work again at 7AM the next day.
It’s not hard to see why the workforce ends up being depressed and overworked, if not worse. And something like Premium Friday won’t be able to solve this problem, simply because companies don’t see the need for employees to be happy in order to be productive — they just force them to stay longer and put in more work.
A PR campaign isn’t going to fix this mess — what Japan needs is a cultural shift, and that won’t happen overnight.
