Do you have to be crazy to work in a Japanese company?
Maybe so, according to a government survey that shows more than employees in more than 80 percent of major Japanese companies are taking sick days due to mental illness. And the survey seems to indicate that the problem is more serious among larger companies.
Fully 82 percent of the firms with 1,000 employees or more responded that they have workers who have been absent from work as a result of mental diseases. Most of them, 97.3 percent, have been away from work for one month or more.
Smaller percentages of small and medium-sized enterprises have employees suspended from work due to mental problems, with 66.3 percent of the firms with 500 to 999 employees 40.9 percent of those employing 300 to 499 replying so. Only 1.5 percent of small businesses with 10 to 29 workers have workers who have been absent from duty because of mental sickness.
Well, how do they classify “mental illness?” Does depression count?
October 2nd, 2006 at 12:59 amYou’d need to run a comparison with other large, industrialised nations with the same perameters. I’m sure most big UK firms have problems with depression, etc.
Also “opinion” from companies isn’t always very useful, because it relies on their perception. You would need more scientific/identifiable statistics to be sure of what is going on. Of course I am sure there are many over-worked people in Japan. Then again that happens in other countries too.
October 2nd, 2006 at 3:25 amJapanese companies are very different from other companies in that they treat it as an extension of their fratt days from college. Ever watched an American college movie? They always have the fratt kids getting tortured and all that stuff correct? Whenever I’d watch those I’d say, “thats ridiculous, that never happens.” Well, that’s exactly the way it happens in Japan.
And they do it in companies too. Your first year, you are a worthless maggot, and they make sure you know it.
Back to the fratt topic; I was on the Kendo team for about a month here at my Japanese university and they tried the same crap. I quit when it started getting violent and went to administration and told them what was going on. Naturally the problem stopped.
But the bigger issue is most Japanese people will never stand up for themselves, especially against someone in a higher position. (This has been going on for the Kendo team since it started over 100 years ago.) If Japanese employees would know that the correct response to getting abused by your employer is not Karaoke or getting drunk, but going over their head to their boss, or if necessary the police, the problem will get resolved. It’s not like the type of stuff that goes on is legal, people just don’t report it.
October 2nd, 2006 at 7:27 amCould it also come down to what is an acceptable excuse for taking time off work?
October 2nd, 2006 at 2:00 pm