Japanese Working Culture Essay

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In some ways Japan looks like other western countries, also when it comes to their working style. If one looks at the official working hours for an office man, it is set for eight hours a day, and if one needs to work overtime, the company will pay for it. This sounds familiar with the working standards in the west, but unlike it, these hours mainly apply to women, because they leave the office at 6 pm, where the buildings close for air-conditioning and heating. The fact remains that the men stay and work a lot more, and later in the evening they finally go home, resulting that the trains can be more crowded around midnight than during the rush hour, since it is seen as dishonorable to leave the office before the boss goes home (Murphy, 2014). …show more content…

Generally women’s rights and their rights to be treated equal have been slow compared with other developed countries. Women first gained the right to vote the 17th of December 1945 (NDL, 2004), which is 30 years after Denmark, 1915, and more than 50 years after New Zealand, 1893 (Log, 2015). But how have the opportunities for women changed, and have the Japanese business world established a tolerant and acceptable room for women co-workers? There are a lot of traditions in Japan, and expectations to the Japanese population, but how is it shown in the society? And most importantly, what kind of pressure is on the population, and how does it affect them? Based on the reflections above, this chapter is going to examine sub question number 2: How has the Japanese working culture changed? Therefore this chapter will focus on the history of the working culture in Japan, starting from the 1950s, where America had established military facilities in Japan and began to influence the society, and Japan began to evolve from a feudal community to a capitalistic state (Hidaka, 2014). 5.1

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