There's still a lot of societal pressure to pass exams to enter a "good" university in Japan (here "good" is an in-country measure - only a worldwide basis ther

There's still a lot of societal pressure to pass exams to enter a "good" university in Japan (here "good" is an in-country measure - only a worldwide basis there are a lot of universities measured as better than almost all of the "good" Japanese universities). Your university degree has usually been the measure of your worth to enter a big Japanese company, but there are presumably a few more foreign companies in Japan, and conditions there are better (not as much overtime). Companies like Rakuten have made English the company language, so there are changes afoot in Japan.