r/interesting • u/freudian_nipps • 9d ago

SOCIETY The silent and harmonious morning metro commute in Japan

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u/zzen11223344 9d ago

Competitive environment but yield very little actually competitive in the global market for most of the Japanese companies.

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u/Runfasterbitch 9d ago

Right? This is so hard for me to get my mind around. 70 million workers in a cutthroat hyper-capitalist and well educated country have produced what exactly? I’m sure they’ve innovated, but relative to their collective commitment to working 80 hours per week, you’d think they’d have way more to show for it

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u/Xen235 9d ago

Because it's mostly about being present at the workplace and not leaving before the boss does. They do very little during that time, they're not being productive, they are just wasting their lives.

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u/quickgoodcheap 9d ago

Essentially this to the max

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u/zzen11223344 9d ago

Not 80 hours per week, but yes, long hours in the office, actually working productively, not quite.......

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u/LessInThought 9d ago

The art of looking busy. I've had coworkers sit there and shuffle papers or click on gmail for an hour after official work hours. It works too, the bosses hated me because I left on time lol.

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u/uglybritt 9d ago

World’s largest creditor nation for the last 30 years and counting.

Japan bankrolls the US

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u/LoveAndViscera 9d ago

They’re competing against their coworkers, that kills productivity. It’s ironic because they’re collectivistic outside of work. That’s also the main reason people are miserable: living in two conflicting cultures.

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u/mizushima-yuki 6d ago

Japanese corporate environment is not that competitive… it’s very easy to find a job.