> “While Western society is individualistic and non-hierarchical, Japanese society is collectivist and hierarchical,” explains Hiroshi Ono, professor of human r

> “While Western society is individualistic and non-hierarchical, Japanese society is collectivist and hierarchical,” explains Hiroshi Ono, professor of human resources management at Hitotsubashi University, who specialises in Japan’s work culture. i am not a researcher, but i dont think that’s the root cause, since 1. there are many types of “western culture” and 2. if it were a sign of collectivist vs individualistic the the u.s should be fairly low on the list but appears above japan! [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time#OECD_ranking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time#OECD_ranking ——- just my opinion from working in jp for more than 10 years, but the only thing that will truly fix the overwork problem will be to officially change the workweek to 4 days... they tried something like this with “premium friday” [2] which went absolutely nowhere... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premium_Friday https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premium_Friday