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I don't get it. What about weekends. Or the (frequent) national holidays? I've never heard of people in Japan being forced to work regularly on weekends or on n

• nugget 10y ago
  From what I've seen the long hours can sometimes create an emotional disconnect between the worker and his family, such that even when there is time off, they prefer to spend it separately.
• nkoren 10y ago
  I lived for several years at an architectural project in Arizona (Arcosanti). At one point, a young Japanese architect came to study there. The first week of the workshop is quite intense, full of academic activities, which she excelled at. On the weekend, the workshoppers rented a van and drove it up to Sedona, where they went hiking. After a few hours on the trail, she suddenly broke down sobbing. Eventually we got the story out of her: between architecture school and a job which began the day after graduation, she'd been working six and a half days per week, without ever taking a holiday or even a sick day, for over five years. This was her first fully free day in all that time. It was evidently completely overwhelming for her, like being released from a long prison sentence. Obviously that's just one data point, and perhaps architecture isn't representative of other professions, but there you go.
  • new299 10y ago
    That's a pretty interesting datapoint though thanks. It's possible I've just not met a wide enough group of people. Think back though, my wife had a friend (engineer) who had been working solidly for 30 days without a break. I guess stretches like that do happen.