Impressions of Japanese working hours
Today's post comes from guest writer 'M.A.', a new employee, on his impressions of Japanese working hours and the stereotypes surrounding them.
------------------------
If you randomly ask someone in Turkey about ‘the country with longest working hours’ or ‘the country which is hardest to work in’ the answer will probably include Japan. And I think Turkey is not the only country that thinks that way. In this post I want to share my own opinion about that ‘belief’.
First of all, let me tell you a little bit about myself and my extremely short working experience in Japan.
I am from Turkey and I work in Japan right now. I studied Japanese as a major in Turkey and after I graduated I came straight to Japan for job-hunting. After a few months of job-hunting I found the job I was looking for and started working in Japan in January 2017. To be honest, at first I was also afraid of the rumors about working in Japan. But working for a month, I realized there is nothing to be afraid of.
I'm working a pretty standard 8 hours a day, and actually most if not all of my friends and family in Turkey work more hours than I do. In Japan, there are long-enough holidays that I am looking forward to through the year like ‘Golden week’ or ‘Silver week’ and it is also a common thing to have some ‘one day holidays’ through the month like ‘Ocean day’ or ‘The emperor's birthday’. The office I work in is very comfortable for me and I am really happy to be working in Japan. I am not an exception in Japan so it is difficult for me to agree with the idea of ‘it's really hard to work in Japan'.
That being said, it wouldn't be fair to ignore the existence of ‘Black Companies’. These are companies with really long working hours and really bad working conditions called ‘Black Companies’ in Japan. Some extreme examples include people losing their lives because of the hard work in those companies. In my opinion, black companies are responsible for the ‘long work hours’ or ‘hard to work in’ image of Japan. But it’s important to remember ‘Black Companies’ are not normal or accepted in Japan, and are considered serious problems to be solved.
To summarize, except for some black companies, Japan offers really good working conditions with average working hours. Japan having average work hours may or may not be a reason for you to work in Japan. But I know that some people doesn't even consider working in Japan just because they think Japan has really long and hard work hours. Since I am working in Japan for only a few months, I may be too ‘fresh’ to give advice on working in Japan but if you want to work in Japan please don't let the rumors about ‘long-hard work hours in Japan’ to stop you from doing so.
Thank you for reading. - 'M.A.' (Azerbaijan, moved to Japan in 2017)
------------------------
First of all, let me tell you a little bit about myself and my extremely short working experience in Japan.
I am from Turkey and I work in Japan right now. I studied Japanese as a major in Turkey and after I graduated I came straight to Japan for job-hunting. After a few months of job-hunting I found the job I was looking for and started working in Japan in January 2017. To be honest, at first I was also afraid of the rumors about working in Japan. But working for a month, I realized there is nothing to be afraid of.
I'm working a pretty standard 8 hours a day, and actually most if not all of my friends and family in Turkey work more hours than I do. In Japan, there are long-enough holidays that I am looking forward to through the year like ‘Golden week’ or ‘Silver week’ and it is also a common thing to have some ‘one day holidays’ through the month like ‘Ocean day’ or ‘The emperor's birthday’. The office I work in is very comfortable for me and I am really happy to be working in Japan. I am not an exception in Japan so it is difficult for me to agree with the idea of ‘it's really hard to work in Japan'.
That being said, it wouldn't be fair to ignore the existence of ‘Black Companies’. These are companies with really long working hours and really bad working conditions called ‘Black Companies’ in Japan. Some extreme examples include people losing their lives because of the hard work in those companies. In my opinion, black companies are responsible for the ‘long work hours’ or ‘hard to work in’ image of Japan. But it’s important to remember ‘Black Companies’ are not normal or accepted in Japan, and are considered serious problems to be solved.
To summarize, except for some black companies, Japan offers really good working conditions with average working hours. Japan having average work hours may or may not be a reason for you to work in Japan. But I know that some people doesn't even consider working in Japan just because they think Japan has really long and hard work hours. Since I am working in Japan for only a few months, I may be too ‘fresh’ to give advice on working in Japan but if you want to work in Japan please don't let the rumors about ‘long-hard work hours in Japan’ to stop you from doing so.
Thank you for reading. - 'M.A.' (Azerbaijan, moved to Japan in 2017)