They don’t even have to pay overtime for work over 28 hours. If they just paid overtime for the actual or time work that is done, that would make an enormous difference. When I worked in Japan (25 years ago, but I have read/heard nothing to suggest that the situation has changed), it was normal for people to work 60 or 70 hours, but not claim any overtime.
Comment on Japan’s Birth Rate Set to Break Even the Bleakest Forecasts
lefthandeddude@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
If Japan capped working at 28 hours a week and anything after that required double the pay (for overtime), this problem would taken care of.
Working all the time makes people miserable. It’s an externality that impacts society in all sorts of horrible ways. It would be proper for the government to institute a rule like this.
It would definitely lower GDP of Japan and cause some economic issues, but the alternative (living in a world where people are so miserable that they don’t fall in love as much as want to reproduce) is worse for their economy.
Will they do this? No, because it would require thinking outside of the box too much and would be seen as too extreme.
gramie@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
xep@discuss.online 3 weeks ago
The situation has changed. Overtime pay is now mandatory, and so is the reporting of the number of hours worked. Whether the hours are accurately reported or not is another matter. 25 years is a long time to assume that nothing has changed, I must say.
gramie@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
I did a quick search, and it appears that it is still very common for Japanese companies to expect unpaid overtime.
Even when I was there, overtime pay was mandatory. The thing is, you get a lot of peer pressure to do unpaid overtime because everyone around you is doing it. If I recall correctly, the government made a big deal about limiting overtime, only to reveal sheepishly that their own employees had worked tons of unpaid overtime to bring in the new legislation.
One of the advantages of being a foreigner in a Japanese company is that you don’t have the same kind of pressures or expectations.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
also one of the other problems is mysogyny, women are expected to give up thier careers when they get pregnant, and recieved very little maternity care.
gramie@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
That sounds like a bit of an improvement since I was there. At that time, women were not even given the chance to be on the career path, because it was assumed that they would quit when they started a family.
We had two children when I was in Japan, and the prenatal care was pretty good. The births themselves were not great examples of medical care, I have to say. Still, it’s normal for women in Japan to stay in the hospital a week after a typical birth. I suspect that’s because if they went home, they would still have to do all the housework.
explodicle@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Here in the USA, employers just avoid overtime and benefits by hiring two people to work 35 hours/week, who each have two jobs.
stringere@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Or make them salaried employees
phutatorius@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Yep, everyone’s a manager, even if they’re not managing anyone.
hanrahan@slrpnk.net 3 weeks ago
Will they do this? No, because it would require thinking outside of the box too much and would be seen as too extreme.
That still won’t work. There is no develooed country on the planet eg Sweden, Australia etc thay does not have a less then replacement birthrate. When given agency outside of a patarchial and/or religious society, most women will choose 0,1 or 2 kids, all below replacement.
For every women choosing 0 you need another choosing 5 just to tread water. That Japans and Koreas are less again may be work related but it would still be less then replacement, no matter yours, or any other suggestion.
None of this is a probelm, it’s just differnt.
Growing the population is just kicking the can down the road because you can’t grow it forever anyway… We already have a over strained biosphere; pollution, resource depletion, climate change, accelerated species extinction etc
This entire thing is a nothing burger.
phutatorius@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
In other words, if people have a decent standard of living and freedom of choice, they would help mitigate the overpopulation problem.
lefthandeddude@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Growing the population is just kicking the can down the road because you can’t grow it forever anyway… We already have a over strained biosphere; pollution, resource depletion, climate change, accelerated species extinction etc
This entire thing is a nothing burger.
you’re right
Muffi@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
Yup. It is so weird to me how little the destroyed work-life-balance is mentioned whenever declining birth rates are discussed (not only in Japan).