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by alephnerd 25 days ago
> How trustworthy is that data

Very. This is the OECD.

> Yet we all hear stories of workers in Japan having basically no life outside of work

These anecdotes tend to be decades old. After the labor code changes in 2018; the new generation of Japanese megacorps like SoftBank, Rakuten, Mercari, and LY normalizing Western work culture; and the worker shortage in the 2010s, work hours reduced.

> And when people visit Japan, they report things like everything being spotless, and trash containers and trucks being washed daily

This is done by guest workers brought in from ASEAN, China, and Nepal in exploitative Gulf-style labor programs that are de facto bonded labor and at least back in Vietnam have ties with organized crime.

The Japanese Ministry of Labor literally has a formal strategy around recruiting guestworkers for janatorial and cleaning work [0].

This is also why the new government is cracking down on such kinds of abuses [1].

[0] - https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/11130500/001567071.pdf

[1] - https://www.nippon.com/ja/news/yjj2026052200262/
1 comments
like_any_other 25 days ago
> This is done by guest workers brought in from ASEAN, China, and Nepal..

Japan has only 3.3% immigrants. For comparison, Canada has 23%.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Japan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Canada

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alephnerd 25 days ago
Yep, but foreign workers make up the overwhelming majority of janitorial and sanitation employees in Japan [0]. Same with agriculture [1][2][3] and textiles/garments [4].

Look, it may feel shocking to you as a Brit, but yes Japanese work life has become significantly chiller and QoL is better than the UK. They didn't have 15 years of austerity as well as Brexit, and were largely sheltered from the Great Recession and Eurozone crisis due to their trade ties in Asia and North America.

They also invested heavily in automation which meant less hands needed for menial work as well as disinvesting in rural and low population regions (most comments about cleanliness tend to be centered within the richer areas of Tokyo).

[0] - https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/11130500/001567071.pdf

[1] - https://mainichi.jp/articles/20251121/k00/00m/040/139000c

[2] - https://mainichi.jp/articles/20251121/k00/00m/040/125000c

[3] - https://mainichi.jp/articles/20251121/k00/00m/040/132000c

[4] - https://www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/sankoshin/seizo_sangyo/text...

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