“It’s fair to say that Japanese people are unbelievably busy. Working 10 hours a day, and often coming in on days off, they rarely take a vacation of more than three or four days. A straight week is a hedonistic luxury.” Japanese people are no doubt, unbelievably busy with constantly working and rarely taking any time off, I am certain of that. My only objection to working that hard, is not having time for you. The point of working is to have money and enjoy the benefits of your previous hard work. Working incessantly and only having time to eat and sleep, seems pointless.
Everyday, you hear about how Americans are lazy and how our work ethic is poor. I do not agree with this statement or with Lynnika Butler, in her essay, “Living on Tokyo Time.” Work ethic is a belief in the moral benefit and importance of work and its inherent ability to strengthen character (dictionary.com). Character is what delineates us; it is what we do when we’re not working. Our job does not define us, our personality and beliefs do. This is why I think the Japanese people should not work as hard as they do.
The Japanese have a prosperous culture and many other benefits that were stated in “Living on Tokyo Time.” These have been achieved by their ancestors who, indeed, did work hard. However, they had the wisdom to understand that it cannot only be about work. This is what makes the Japanese lack a social life.
Although I disagree with Butler, she does provide good arguments. For instance, in paragraph two she articulates:
“Watching people like this, with almost no time for themselves, makes an American like me wonder why more of them don’t throw themselves under subway trains.”
Butler, in fact, is not the only one with an opinion on this subject...
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...arder, and therefore gain more benefits. After thoroughly thinking the line through, it is obvious that although the Japanese work more, they have less time to “reap what they sow.”
Works Cited
"Work ethic." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 01 Dec. 2011. .
Penfield, Elizabeth. Short Takes. White Plains, NY: Longman, 2009. Print.
Gerena, Casey. "Japanese Work Ethic - International Business - a Wikia Wiki." International Business Wiki. Web. 11 Dec. 2011. .
Brull, Steven. "A Tale of Two Work Ethics By Many Yardsticks, the U.S. Tops Japan - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 07 Feb. 1992. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. .
I did not know that much about this culture until this paper. The Japanese people are very polite and respectful. The Japanese take education very serious and nature. Their langue is a lot different they have different styles of speaking even for different social status there is a certain way of thinking. In Japan there is a mixture of the Buddha religion and the Shinto. Both beliefs have the same influence on the Japan culture. Buddhism was brought o Japan in the early 6th century from China. There are five precepts that they go by which are no killing, no stealing, no lying, no sexual misconduct, and no use of intoxication.
In Niall Ferguson’s essay “America’s Oh Sh*t Moment,” he mentioned America’s newfound unemployment work ethic. The statement was quite interesting to me because from my perspective, it is accurate because the majority of Americans do not want to work. They would much rather sit at home all day and watch television. Unfortunately, most can not sacrifice their jobs due to financial circumstances. Furthermore, I will use the idea of work ethic to write my paper by comparing America’s work ethic to India’s. Despite the fact that India is a third world country, most Indians have a stronger work ethic than Americans. Therefore, I will develop an argumentative synthesis to support my thesis based on the information I discover after I conduct thorough research.
...dying Japanese at tertiary level alone. Research relating to Japan is carried out at about thirty-seven universities in Australia. The range of research has developed to include not only the humanities, but also practical and business-related fields. Also there is a considerable amount of youth exchange between Australia and Japan. Every year Japan accepts about one hundred young Australians as government funded students. All of the above attributes are making a major contribution to the promotion of friendly relations between Australia and Japan.
In the essay, “The Work Ethic, In A Modern Guise”, author Joanne B. Ciulla talks about how the modern style of working is different from the traditional and old work ethic, and how the young and coming generation does not want to work hard but instead wants instant results. The long lasting formula of working hard and performing seems to be fading away. Instead of mastering the subject, students care about the final results and brownie points. Moreover, Ciulla asserts that students engage in activities that pay-off well in the end rather than the excellence of the work. In the article, Ciulla describes the situation of today’s students being more centred about the idea of getting a higher grade. According to Ciulla, students do not show determination but they want second-chances so that they can have a better grade than before. Students want that better grade simply because they have put a lot of time. Sometimes, professors unreasonably give students a higher grade which leads to a false confidence among students which is the root of other causes. In the end o...
This book is divided into three parts. In first part Kondo discussed the settings.In Part One Kondo relates, in sometimes interminable detail, various factoids about the flexible usage of pronouns in Japanese as well as about the Yamanote/Shitamachi divide in central Tokyo and how that affects the construction of identity. There was a very open class difference between Shitamachi (of craftsmen and manual workers) and Yamanote ( elites) areas; the same concept of elite and subaltern classes distinguished on the basis of more/less money,high/low-paid salary, better/poor housing, etc and how they were tied to the firm size. People working in bigger firms were considered elite and with etiquettes where as people working in small firms were considered to be less elite. She also mentioned her own identity dilemma as Japanese American. She examines her own position in the field and how that may have changed people’s perception about her. This is an account where she w...
The same article showed other factors that play into the overworked life of an average American, and one of them is the 67% increase in cost of living since 1990(Gilson). Or, the fact that one’s annual salary at minimum wage is merely $15,080. In addition to that, one must have a $30,000 income in order to say that they genuinely have econmic security. So, maybe this is the reason why Americans find themselves having to work longer hours and having to work harder. It is because our economy is relentless, and in order to make a living, things like vacation and days off have to sometimes be put on ho...
The Japanese society can be portrayed as essentially having no classes since there is a small group of elite and underclass that encompass the numerous middle class. Social differences exist between rural folks and urban residents in terms of family composition, education and participation in the labor force. The social difference in urban setting exists between white collar middle class and blue collar industrial workers and the self-employed artisans (Japan social influence 2014:6).
The salaryman was a product’ of modern Japanese capitalist system, where power, authority and possession were the signify of a ‘real man’, a sort of corporate soldier who had a primary influence in Japanese society. The salaryman came to substitute the soldier’s hegemonic influence, in fact he exhibits militaristic connotations, mainly because the salaryman has an essential role in the state’s objective of economic growth. Hence the salaryman is overloaded with work, he almost put corporate interests before family, as he barely engages with his family, in fact the salaryman is reluctant to go home as he feels a bit estranged at home. As Dasgupta continues to explain, the salaryman was not only the ideal man but the ‘ideal citizen’, he has to deal with every-day problems such as jam-packed transports, work-related illness, competition, frequent job transfers and long hours shifts, on the other hand there are benefits such as long weekends (spent playing golf), business trips and economic stability (Dasgupta, 2013). The sarariiman is a heterosexual male, monotonous, office worker and family provider, with one or two children (Roberson & Suzuki, 2003) . Commonly the salaryman possesses these characteristics: middle class graduate, loyal, diligent, fully dedicated to the paternalist corporation (referring to the permanent relation between the corporate and the worker), well-groomed
Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
...ty for one that better suited its capitalistic tendency. That opportunity came in1868 when the Meiji imperial rule was able to overthrow the Tokugawa regime, setting off a political, economic, social and cultural change that transformed Japan. As Japan embraced modernity with full force, some began to realize the negative impact of modernization on the rural life, social structure and most importantly on its culture, blaming it on the western influence on its modernization. Thus as Japan neared World War II, it embraced a new sense of modernization, one that was separate from westernization, creating a nationalistic and fascist government policy. Japanese society is characteristic of plurality and opposing value systems coexisting. As new ideals and institutions arise, Japan sees itself transforming and changing at the hands of internal and external forces.
90) describes people in collectivist cultures rely heavily on “in-groups which look after them in exchange for loyalty.” China and Japan are high power distance cultures. They have a hierarchical structure where societal movement is minimal. Hao (2015) describes collectivist cultures to place emphasis on “what is best for the social institutions that [an individual] belongs to over personal ambitions and goals.” Both Chinese and Japanese cultures are motivated and driven by success as seen by evidence on each countries emphasis on the importance of education (Country Comparison. n.d.). Long-term orientation allows both countries to prepare for the future and achieve long-term goals. While practical in their efforts they are “working to serve [future] generations” (Country Comparison. n.d.). Leisure time is not an emphasis in either culture and leads to “self-restraint and the emphasis on hard work and achievement” defining both China and Japan as restrained cultures (Hao,
In conclusion, I tried to explain what experienced in Japan during the first years of rapid economic growth in terms of its social consequences. According to my argument, I tried to show imbalances which occurred with economic development in post- war Japan. In other words, economic development cannot appear as linear social development. Post- war Japan has witnessed positive and negative social consequences after implementing economic recovery. Therefore, we can say that society cannot always embrace economic development positively. Economic transformation brings its own waves and thus society fluctuates regarding its embracement. Japanese society received its share with this economic recovery during post- war period.
The way the Japanese treat their workers is so different. the way we treat our workers here. The Japanese are so much more respectful. towards their employer ( the exact opposite from other countries, especially those with a centralised economy and often work for one employer until retirement. Some of the special treatment that the workers receive is housing; some of the Companies, namely Honda, have a special housing unit for their workers and their families and a company cemetery for all the workers and their families.
of people in America like being the lazy person. In Japan if you aren't busy
First, the lifestyle of the Japanese is very different to that of Americans. Whereas people in America generally spend lots of time with their families, the people of Japan typically only see each other at certain times such as meals or weekends. This is due to a heavy focus on business and work life, especially since seniority at a company determines your wages and potential for promotion (Huen 2). As part of the seniority aspect of work, many women are reluctant to have children as it forces them to take time away from work in order to have a baby and to raise the child. According to Huen, “The Japanese employment system thus offers workers something close to permanent job security if they are patient about advancement, with predictable pay increases, company housing and several kinds of fringe benefits, all in return for workers’ loyalty and commitment to the company”. This system causes many women not to want children until their careers are well on the way to becoming ...