Happier Abroad Forum Community

Essentially, stress is five times more lethal than traffic accidents in Japan, and one of the leading causes of death in men aged 20-44. Spa magazine last year reported that 72.3% of 600 men aged 35-45 surveyed were single, and over a third of them had not had sex in three years, often citing work fatigue as their main affliction.

Japans Brutal Work Culture
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/JAP-01-100214.html

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Asia needs to find a way to get away from the 'workaholic' culture into something more sustainable and stress-free, e.g. the Scandinavian countries. ...

Stress causes more damage than many realize. I had a friend that had a stroke in his 30's because of it (he wasn't obese at all). I have been on that path for many years myself and am now trying to undo the damage. I have no doubt that I'd have died young if I'd not recognized what it was doing to me.

The challenge is letting go. I can't seem to do it as it makes no sense. I NEED to see some sort of reward sometime during my life. I don't think that is going to fall into my lap so I work....and work....and work. At the same time, I'm trying to undo and minimize the damage....crazy ongoing cycle.

Taco wrote:Essentially, stress is five times more lethal than traffic accidents in Japan, and one of the leading causes of death in men aged 20-44. Spa magazine last year reported that 72.3% of 600 men aged 35-45 surveyed were single, and over a third of them had not had sex in three years, often citing work fatigue as their main affliction.

Japans Brutal Work Culture
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/JAP-01-100214.html

Omelettes require a few broken eggs.

A thing I read about stress is it being synthetically caused on top of everything else. The additives in food & drinks causing nervous system problems & hormonal shifts as a source of stress & anxiety is a point. It's general strain on the body is also a source of problems like you'd get with constant stress, whether or not you're "stressed out."

If we look at Japanese worker's average number of hours worked per year, it has actually declined from 1821 hours/year in 2000 to 1745 hours/year in 2012:
https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=ANHRS

However, averages do not tell the whole story. In Japan's case, you have one portion of workers who work excessive (2000+) hours, and then you have another portion of part-timers & temp workers that are "under-worked and underpaid":

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/comm ... ry-workers

Japan seems to have always been a weird place like that. Look at the ninja: massive differences culturally from the "rest" of society (although, it gets depicted as much different than it actually was- I think it was Samurai War Stories by Anthony Cummins that mentioned that). The ninja were much less servile & actually were somewhat democratic (so maybe it didn't ALL come from Greece). This is in stark contrast to some of the rest of society in that time, which tended to do anything the shogun wanted- including kill themselves! There was a very outsourced style of decision-making in Japan. Apparently, it wasn't only the Ninja vs. the Samurai- there were a lot of other people that had a problem with how things went socially. Especially when it came down on them. The good guys doing all the shit you were worried about the bad guys doing is just as much as a problem!

I thought the grass-eaters rejected this work culture?

Maybe you're confusing hippie with what seems to be meant by "grass-eaters?" The hippies DID reject that type of culture, but I think "grass-eaters" means more that they are placid people.

polya wrote:I thought the grass-eaters rejected this work culture?

They are only rejecting working enough hours to support TWO people while living off the allowance their wife/owner grants them.