Japan Wants To Quit Its Toxic Work Culture: But Why Isn’t It Working? | Insight

In 2018, Japan passed the Work Style Reform Law, aimed at improving conditions for its shrinking workforce. From punishing firms that flout overtime caps, to encouraging companies to raise salaries, Japan is trying all methods to nudge the country towards a healthier work attitude. Yet, more than five years on, over 94% of Japanese workers report feeling unengaged or actively resentful at work. Now, the government is proposing a 4-day work week to improve its work culture. With the country’s labour shortage expected to swell to 11 million in 2040, and workloads blamed for declining birthrates, where does the key to change lie?

0:00 Introduction
1:25 Resignation consultancies booming in Japan
4:20 Why Japan wants to reform the way it works
11:20 Life of a “salaryman”
13:14 What shaped Japan’s notorious work culture
17:25 “Karoshi” or dying from overwork?
23:06 How full-time employment is valued in Japan
28:54 Why don’t Japanese workers voice their frustrations?
32:45 Impact of worker disengagement on Japan’s economy
35:55 Work reform may be difficult for SMEs
39:57 Will things change with the next generation?

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34 Comments

  1. Man Japan working conditions is absurd really
    2:56 oh Power stickeer yayyy
    I'm really glad i don't have to have so much pressure on me to the point that ending my life is seen as a better solution

  2. This is America. After running people into the ground through industrial revolutions and fast advances in tech. We’ve come to a stall and a stall in society isn’t good for government!!!

  3. I’m Japanese. Japanese companies only do well when the people at the top are good leaders. Unfortunately almost all the men that rebuilt Japan after ww2 are gone, and their incompetent spoiled sons are running the show.

  4. As much as I like Japan's beautiful and cool culture side. I don't like their bad side. Its not a perfect country and everyone who says its a perfect country needs to stop the "its perfect and safe" toxic mindset. No country is perfect, everyone has their problems. Perfection is a myth!

  5. Aa of 2025, more singaporean are responding to work matters after work hours on the train, train platform, shopping mall seating area and even at HDB void deck

  6. This is a world wide problem. The rulers need their peasants to work 24/7, so their profits can keep going up. Until the gullible mindless dumbed down masses wake up from their comatose state of mind control that the rulling classes have over them, nothing will change.

  7. No one ever mentions that a big part of the Japanese economic miracle was due to the U.S. government allowing Japan easy access to importing products to the U.S. economy. Also, defense of the country was left to U.S. armed forces, principally, so money didn't have to be diverted to that expense.

  8. Even workers in other countries experience work exploitation. If you are aiming for permanency for instance, you are expected to do extra work and clock on unpaid hours In HRD vocab, it is viewed as positive work attitude if you are willing to clock in more hours which translate to more work output. Those who render only 8 hours are seen as less dedicated to work and this is considered when evaluation time comes. Though viewed positively by management if you work beyond 8 hours, it however does not translate to better wages and benefits, but tenureship is there. So people just bear with this slave arrangement because one needs a job to pay monthly bills. So no one complains, fearful that if they do so they may lose their work. This work life balance equation is only true for those in the managerial levels who take the credit for good work rendered by the so called rank and file. Such has been the sad plight of many. There is not much choice, you either work and survive each gruelling day or you resign and face poverty. The docu video hits a raw nerve and in that sense it gains much relevance.

  9. これが終わってるのは、退職後も会社と"良好"な関係を築いていなければ個人に負担を強いる制度があること。
    失業手当や傷病手当やら何かと補償はあっても、全て会社が協力しなければすぐには補償されないようになっている。
    マイナンバーもあるんだし簡単に収入がないことなんてわかるはずなのに、補償は時間がかかる。
    実質困った時に保障される制度は無い日本で辞めたあとのことを考えると今の状況を受け入れるしかないって人がたくさんいる。
    なぜ辞めるだけなのに辞めないのかはそれが原因。

  10. i worked with 2 Japanese men NL before who are English literate–read; write and speak English. they are earning more than Є80,000/monthly. the opportunity they have should they work abroad are boundless. if the younger generation do not embrace learning English, they are trap in this cycle of toxicity. because even if the Japanese government impose a law on work-life balance, companies will always find a loophole.😞

  11. Hello to all foreigners,
    I am Japanese, but after 5 years of working in Japan, I always get depression and start to think about suicide every day

  12. The work reform from 2019 has the same weaknesses as before – lack of teeth in the law. The only real way to fight back against this is litigation or unionization.

  13. Japan, South Korea and China.
    The worst countries to work as a private employee.
    Unfortunately I have worked for one South Korean and a Chinese company.

  14. I like being screamed at by my boss every day, i love leaving the house at 5:30am and getting home at 9pm, 6 days a week. I love the way the Government take almost half my money every month. I love that my landlord gets another 20% of my pay for an apartment the size of a shoe box. I love that im stuck in a corner that i have no money or time to crawl out of.I LOVE WORKING IN JAPAN.