Re 1): Yup. There's a lot of focus, especially in Western press, on the salarymen and how much they work. But the vast majority of Japanese workers aren't salar

Re 1): Yup. There's a lot of focus, especially in Western press, on the salarymen and how much they work. But the vast majority of Japanese workers aren't salarymen. Assembly line workers at Nissan or Yamaha don't work 17 hours a day, that's for sure. Even other white-collar workers like doctors and teachers have schedules comparable to their counterparts in other countries.