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.