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[Frozenprince]

Doesn't prioritizing the self naturally produce egocentricity and dualism? It's why America sucks so much dick, for it's perhaps the leading developing nation focused on the self above all.

It's also the reason that you likely live in a country that allows you to philosophize on a website for video game enthusiasts about the egocentrism of modernity without the cognizance of irony.

People work for things they want. Currency and bartering is a natural byproduct of human nature. You're trying too hard to push against something that just is.

 

[Foffy]

It's also the reason that you likely live in a country that allows you to philosophize on a website for video game enthusiasts about the egocentrism of modernity without the cognizance of irony.

People work for things they want. Currency and bartering is a natural byproduct of human nature. You're trying too hard to push against something that just is.

My rambling isn't the denouncing of currency and that jazz, but the danger of its severity to where it becomes exploitative and abusive. Part of the race to the bottom, which is happening in the country you live in. Money is a tool to use, not a tool to be used by. How many can genuinely say they are not victims to the latter? If you have to live for it, you're being used by it.

My point about self is to realize unity, and thus realize cooperation. We are still in the social viewpoint of self above other, despite globalization, and thus our ways of thinking produce more and more problems while offering fewer and fewer solutions. You see it in America where we can just shrug off the problems affecting so many people for they do not affect people individually. The problem should be that such bugbears exist in a collective in the very first place, and individual susceptibility to it is meaningless. An entire political party is focused on this very problem, being the usual enemies of reason that they are.

 

[ShadowSwordmaster]

My rambling isn't the denouncing of currency and that jazz, but the danger of its severity to where it becomes exploitative and abusive. Part of the race to the bottom, which is happening in the country you live in. Money is a tool to use, not a tool to be used by. How many can genuinely say they are not victims to the latter? If you have to live for it, you're being used by it.

My point about self is to realize unity, and thus realize cooperation. We are still in the social viewpoint of self above other, despite globalization, and thus our ways of thinking produce more and more problems while offering fewer and fewer solutions. You see it in America where we can just shrug off the problems affecting so many people for they do not affect people individually. The problem should be that such bugbears exist in a collective in the very first place, and individual susceptibility to it is meaningless. An entire political party is focused on this very problem, being the usual enemies of reason that they are.

So it should be more European then.

 

[Foffy]

So it should be more European then.

Are many European nations not also facing this problem? Immigration is one great issue there, as is social standings for many a people, and the potential hiccups of automation produce similar levels of displacement for their labor forces as it does America's.

Europe by nature has a more collaborative spirit, so if that's what you're saying we should carry on with, perhaps we should.

 

[Replicant]

Japan has a culture whereby challenging authority is frowned upon as a result they have this persevere mentality when they should speak up about unfair working conditions. It'd take a change in social norm and education to turn this around.

 

[bluethree]

"Ganbare"?

"No matter how bad things are, if you stand up for yourself, it's your fault and you're a terrible person for it for disrupting the social harmony"

=my personal experience.

 

[tokkun]

Do we have any stats on how this compares to other countries in the world?

It's going to be difficult to compare, because in the rest of the world if a person has a heart attack or commits suicide and they have been stressed out about work or putting in long hours recently, it's probably not categorized as "working one's self to death". People will take an identical set of circumstances and interpret their meaning differently depending on the cultural context. Like how there are tons of "fan deaths" in Korea every year but nowhere else in the world.

 

[TAJ]

It's going to be difficult to compare, because in the rest of the world if a person has a heart attack or commits suicide and they have been stressed out about work or putting in long hours recently, it's probably not categorized as "working one's self to death". People will take an identical set of circumstances and interpret their meaning differently depending on the cultural context. Like how there are tons of "fan deaths" in Korea every year but nowhere else in the world.

Are they even talking about heart attacks? I just assumed they meant shit like deep vein thrombosis.

 

[smurfx]

what are the smoking rates like in japan? i can imagine many smoking like chimney's to try and deal with the stress of work.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

Telling millennials to just work harder to obtain the same QoL as the previous generation surely won't backfire.

 

[Guru-Guru]

If we are talking about Japan, shorter work days and more part time work would be a good answer for now. There is zero reason for people having to work 16 hour days, that I fully agree with.

However, I see no wrong in a normal 8 hour work day, and with part time work only 2 or 3 of those every week. You can use the rest of your time for whatever makes you happy. But preferably of course you would find a job that does that already, or at least doesn't make you miserable all the time.

I have some Japanese friends who are part time workers at companies over here. They officially work around 30 hours a week, but usually clock in at 40-45 hours a week when you include overtime. They get paid like shit too...

 

[Slayer-33]

Stories I hear from people working at Namco - Sometimes you're expected to work long hours EVEN THOUGH THERE ARE NO TASKS. Basically sit there pretending to be giving your all to the company.

Good lord...

 

[Apparition]

"Ganbare"?

More like "Gaman"

That said, there is an unofficial list of 'Black Companies' that people are actively trying to avoid.

 

[entremet]

Telling millennials to just work harder to obtain the same QoL as the previous generation surely won't backfire.

Japan, Europe, the US.

Same story really.

 

[Thelonelykoopa]

Doubt much can change this as Japan is very political apathetic. Really the only party which wins consistently is LDP and most of the other parties are just as if not more right wing with one of the previous center-left wing Democratic party fusing with the right wing Innovation party making the new Democratic Party this march (which I don't really know much about this new parties policies as NHK International only briefly mentioned it ) . And essentially all other major parties being right wing except for Japans communist party.

 

[GoutPatrol]

Japan has a culture whereby challenging authority is frowned upon as a result they have this persevere mentality when they should speak up about unfair working conditions. It'd take a change in social norm and education to turn this around.

That's a whole East Asian thing. And with social safety nets close to non-existent, a whole lot of people get fucked.

 

[God Dayumm]

Wallstreet is smiling with glee... And taking notes. Finally, a way to preserve insane PE's.

This already happens in Wall Street

 

[Square2015]

It's all part of this "it's our fate" mentality that continues to be so strong over there, it has them stuck in a box that cannot be challenged.

That's why the story in games like FFX and FFXIII are so good for Japan, the heroes are able to actually break out of "their fate" (something we in the West cannot understand or appreciate and thus give such stores only a mediocre score).

 

[Apparition]

Many schools make it mandatory for students to join a club so they end up staying a couple of hours every day after school to attend club activities (and might come the occasional Saturday for some further activities). Some might go to cram school after that.

I have also spoken with several public schoolteachers about their working hours and all of them said they work 12+ hours a day (plus the occasional Saturday). Even after the school finishes they stay behind to correct papers, prepare assignments and tests, attend meetings and guide troubled students.

A solution, hence, has to begin with the education system and its working conditions if there is hope to change the prevailing working culture.

 

[MegaManTrigger]

I could see this being the future in the US if unions continue to lose power

I doubt it. People will flip shit, especially with family time and free time being important in Western culture.

 

[Mozz-eyes]

what are you the smoking rates like in japan? i can imagine many smoking like chimney's to try and deal with the stress of work.

I work at a Japanese company in Nagoya and everyone smokes.

Hours aren't killer, though. There are late nights but most people are out by 7-8.

 

[Theodran]

The article states that there are no legal limits on Japanese work limits, but this is wrong.

The Japanese work week, legally, is 40 hours. On top of that, you can only work 360 overtime hours per yer, or 120 hours per 3 months, or 45 hours per month. A company has to apply for permits if they want to allow certain employees to break this limit.

Many companies simply don't report overtime, or they use a system where employees get paid a certain amount of overtime each month (30 hours is normal), regardless of how many overtime hours employees work. They are legally required to pay additional overtime if employees work over that pre-paid limit, but most do not.

Additionally, when companies DO put overtime restraints on employees, many of them simply skirt it by clocking out early but still keep on working. There are also many positions where people are expected to go drinking either with their co-workers or with clients, and for some it puts a lot of financial pressure upon them too (a co-worker of mine basically got himself into debt because he kept going drinking with clients but the company didn't pay for it).