Japanese Working Life

The Japanese are known as hard working people. They work longer and they are almost never absent from their work. This is the image many have about the Japanese working force. In this chapter, I will be dealing with Japanese work life and working culture and how this may affect the society. In general, the Japanese employees are called salaryman, an adopted English word brought over into Japanese.

We have to realize that Japan is a group society. This means there is a huge emphasis on group and belonging to the group. In Japan it has always been believed that individual moral and mental attitudes have an important bearing on productive power. Loyalty towards the company has been highly regarded. A man may be an excellent technician, but if his way of thought and his moral attitudes do not accord with the company’s ideal, the company does not hesitate to dismiss him. Men who move in from another company at a comparatively advanced stage in their working life tend to be difficult to mold or they are suspect in their loyalties (Chie Nakane, 1970).

Japanese companies expect the full loyalty to the company and therefore they cannot afford their workers to be a member of a religious group or organization, including the Christian Church.

For the rest of the information, please refer to Understanding Japan through the Eyes of Christian Faith.