[djhn]

I want to say poverty as a one word one liner, but I'm really interested in a genuine explanataion.

However poverty and appearing to work hard to be at the top of an extremely competitive scramble out of poverty is my rough idea that isn't too hand-wavey in the direction of religion or culture.

[Glawen]

Japanese are not poor for a long time, but still they die of overwork. There must be a cultural thing pushing them hard like this

[refurb]

Singapore has been high income since the 1980's and still has a very intense Asian work culture. The latest generation or two grew up in a very comfortable lifestyle, so any sense of "desperate poverty" is something their grandparents talk about. It even rare for Singaporeans to do much manual labor now, it's mostly done by foreign workers.

And other SE Asian countries (poorer than Singapore) have more of a reputation of "work shy" cultures. If you can work enough so you're not starving and have a house and beer to drink, why work harder?

So clearly the link between poverty and a "work hard" culture is pretty weak.

[karmakurtisaani]

In one of Malcolm Gladwell's books this was explained as a by product of rice farming culture. Apparently in those climates rice grows all year round and every day you take off ends up hurting your bottom line, giving rise to hard work culture.