Categories
Antiwork

A new personal perspective on Japanese work culture

I'm currently visiting Japan and wanted to share something I learned here which I found eye opening, especially since I've been a lurker on this sub for a while. Maybe most of you know about it but I wanted to share it nonetheless and perhaps shed a new light on why I think it is the way it is. There are many mentions and a general negative sense of the Japanese work culture, as being toxic, oppressing, and generally negative. Examples include long hours, not leaving the office before the boss leaves, mandatory social activites after work, and many more. But that's not what I want to focus on. I'm not justifying all of this, but simply sharing my observations, which actually made me understand it better. Here is what I noticed: Everything and every action has been thought out for you. It's all optimized to the maximum of its…


I'm currently visiting Japan and wanted to share something I learned here which I found eye opening, especially since I've been a lurker on this sub for a while. Maybe most of you know about it but I wanted to share it nonetheless and perhaps shed a new light on why I think it is the way it is.

There are many mentions and a general negative sense of the Japanese work culture, as being toxic, oppressing, and generally negative. Examples include long hours, not leaving the office before the boss leaves, mandatory social activites after work, and many more.

But that's not what I want to focus on. I'm not justifying all of this, but simply sharing my observations, which actually made me understand it better.

Here is what I noticed:

  1. Everything and every action has been thought out for you. It's all optimized to the maximum of its potential and every possible issue or abnormality has been planned for, and executed flawlessly when the condition happened.

  2. I got the best service and attention compared to any other place I've been, including the must mundane 7/11 out there.

  3. Every Interaction I had with a Japanese was met with a lot of patience, understanding, attention, and respect.

Looking at all of that and more, I came to the understanding that everyone here does their best at what they do because someone, somewhere, if not everyone, is doing their own best. Whether it's the security guard, the shop clerk, the waiters, or the engineers, basically everyone who works.

What I think happens is that there is feedback loop that reinforces this tendency to make the best and most work possible. And it actually feels motivating to me to come back home and do the best I can.

In contrast with North America, It feels as if we're doing the minimum of what we can just so that we pass this minimum threshold of acceptability. I feel perhaps that this threshold has raised to a point where some people can't even afford to reach despite their efforts, even having to work multiple jobs just to get by or satisfy an outcome. I think it may do a different kind of feedback loop of doing the bare minimum and not feeling motivated to work and it kinda explains some things about why some managers react the way they do. (Not counting the for-profit and egoist ones)

Thinking about the duality of these two perspectives, I don't think either one is totally right. Both can reach a negative extreme, but both have positives. There are some lessons to learn but I'm still thinking about it and hopefully I can eventually build myself a work ethic that is right for me and everyone around me.

Edit: some typos.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *