Sleeping is giving in

Working hard or hardly working? The latter can't be said for the Japanese.

Beginning in junior high, a Japanese student's life is set into hyperdrive. They maintain a rigorous course load of regular academic classes as well as begin attending juku, or cram school, which is just an extended time for studying. From sun up to sun down, students are working tirelessly on maintaining the highest marks, so that they can then prepare for entrance exams into high school, and then university and finally get dumped into a job which will set the marathon pace for the rest of their career.

The word "work" is synonymous with life. In Japan, the only true acceptance into society, especially as a man, is to be deemed a hard worker for a company you stick with forever. Wall Street investment bankers and on-call cardiologists can't even compare to the overtime hours that are implemented in factories and engineering facilities across Japan.

In fact, this type of after hour quality control in factories is often done in 24-hour shifts conducted by middle management employees who aren't compensated for the overtime. These sessions claim to be "voluntary"; however, in Japanese working culture, that is the circuitous way of telling the employee that they will single-handedly sabotage the success of the company if they don't participate in this unpaid extra routine performance.

Amid all this overtime and underpayment, is there ever an inkling to question why? It seems unlikely considering the lack of success the Japanese government has had on setting legal limits for overtime work. During the 1970's, overtime work became the norm and many salarymen weren't necessarily arguing for a much deserved paid vacation.

For recent college grads, the first few years at a company are crucial in solidifying a position as an employee. Thus, many new hires are thrusted into an abominable 60-hour/week base and take it upon themselves as duty to continue to do more, even without compensation. In the Japanese workplace, longer is better. And also more respectful. If management is seen leaving before lower level employees, they feel ashamed by their lack of responsibility and leadership. Similarly, the rest of the staff feel obliged to wait until management leaves so that they can be seen as diligent and hardworking.

However, if the job is done, can't all employees feel good about the 9+ hours they've already put into the day and go home knowing it was a job well done? Apparently not because as opposed to most western countries that follow a pattern of linear hierarchy in job roles, Japanese companies work as a hybrid and function more like a soccer team, kicking work back and forth across the field until finally reaching the goal. It seems counterintuitive to do so, yet only if the system itself is questioned, which it rarely is.

After the '70s, the prevalence of overtime work took such a toll on Japanese that a word for the excessively overworked was coined. Karoshi, or death from too much work, was spreading throughout companies in Japan and even today is still a significant problem.

This is not metaphorical speak. Several reports of Toyota engineers since 2006 have died from working over 80 hours of overtime each month. One chief engineer was pushing 114 hours of overtime per month with bi-monthly international travel. He was found dead of heart failure in his home the day before he was supposed to fly back to the US to launch a new line of Camrys. Toyota's reputation has been tarnished by reports of other employees literally dropping dead during work from immense fatigue and heart failure.

If the work itself wont kill Japanese, they will sadly take matters into their own hands. According to government figures released in June 2009, nearly 2,300 Japanese had committed suicide that year due to work-related issues of fatigue.

With labor laws as ambiguous as they were 40 years ago, its a shame that companies who pride themselves on such a team effort couldn't learn from the loss of players past. It is not in the nature of any human being to have to suffer through life. Regardless of how much you love your job, it's more important to love yourself.