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Meet the Japanese salarymen who defy gravity in a Tokyo park during lunchtime

Oona McGee
Apr 29, 2023
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Salarymen with superhero strength band together to form a horizontal bar club.

Japan
(COK • cool • fitness • gymnastics • health • Hibiya Park • interview • Japanese salaryman • Masanuki Sunakoma • nature • outdoors • parks • salarymen • SNJO • Tokyo • working in Japan)

Long-running manga character is heavily implied to have COVID-19 in latest issue

Krista Rogers
Feb 16, 2021

Manga readers are concerned about the fate of Kosaku Shima, whose corporate developments they’ve been following since 1983.

Japan
(anime • coronavirus • COVID-19 • Kenshi Hirokane • Kosaku Shima • manga • Salaryman • salarymen • society)

One Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask scene is less zany, much sadder to adults, salaryman learns

Casey Baseel
Apr 3, 2020

Postman, we’re sorry for laughing at you.

Japan
(COK • funny • Legend of Zelda • Majora's Mask • nintendo • sad • salarymen • video games)

Is work more important to Japanese salarymen than their girlfriends? Survey investigates

Casey Baseel
Dec 30, 2019

”Which is more important, your job, or me?”

Japan
(COK • relationships • romance • salarymen • society • survey • working in Japan)

Weightlifting is Japanese salarymen’s newest hobby, report says, since “Muscles won’t betray you”

Casey Baseel
Nov 12, 2019

Lead researcher says pumping iron gives salarymen a joy “that they can’t get from work.”

Japan
(COK • exercise • fitness • mucles • salarymen • society • weightlifting)

Overworked Japanese employees mourn unused paid holidays at new Buddhist memorial service

Oona McGee
Nov 1, 2019

Workaholics asked to address this senseless loss in a country where taking paid leave is frowned upon.

Japan
(holidays • karoshi • karoushi • overwork • paid holiday • religion • salarymen • society • strange • temples • work • working in Japan)

English reactions to A Day in the Life of a Japanese Salaryman video sadden Japanese netizens

Dale Roll
Oct 11, 2019

Many were depressed by some of the comments made by overseas YouTube users who found the workday in the video long and tiresome.

Japan
(salarymen • society • video • work-life balance • working in Japan)

Sayonara, smelly salarymen! Japanese company develops self-smell-checking device

Casey Baseel
Jun 27, 2018

Handheld device sniffs pits and other smelly parts, assigns numerical stank ranking.

Japan
(funny • health • hygiene • salarymen • smell • tanita • technology • weird)

Salaryman with sick wife pulls no punches in verbal smackdown of boss who won’t let him go home

Casey Baseel
Mar 24, 2018

Think Japanese businessmen don’t care about their wives? This one does, and he’s got no time for anyone keeping him from taking care of her.

Japan
(awesome • cool • funny • marriage • romance • salarymen • society • working in Japan)

“The one and only way to make people in Japan take more vacation time”

Casey Baseel
Jan 10, 2018

Our veteran salaryman-turned-reporter gives his idea for the one thing that has to change before Japan will stop working itself to death.

Japan
(business • COK • economy • overwork • P.K. Sanjun • salarymen • SNOJ • society • working in Japan)

Up to 40 percent of Japanese men can’t sleep because of work

Andrew Kane
Nov 19, 2016

A new survey reveals that a startling number of Japanese workers are literally losing sleep over their stressful jobs.

Japan
(health • insomnia • overwork • salarymen)

Famed educator says Steve Jobs, Bill Gates would have been ruined by Japanese education system

Casey Baseel
Feb 18, 2016

Labels the country’s schools as stifling “salaryman training facilities.”

Japan
(Apple • Bill Gates • education • kids • Microsoft • salarymen • schools • Steve Jobs)

Top 11 tweets to make you feel glad you don’t work in Japan

Scott Wilson
Sep 15, 2015

It’s no secret that working in Japan can be pretty miserable. Long hours, unpaid overtime, power harassment, and mandatory drinking parties with coworkers are just some of the factors that contribute to workers all over Japan leading stressful lives.

But misery loves company, so that’s why we present the top 11 tweets to make you feel glad you don’t work in Japan. Some of them are attempts at encouragement, some of them are commiserating, and some of them are so painfully sad that you can’t help but cry. So read on and see how your own work compares to Japan!

Japan
(business • salarymen • society • working in Japan)

Fear of failure could be behind the extremely low happiness rate among Japanese men

Audrey Akcasu
Apr 8, 2015

Recently the world got a look at the busy world of salarymen in Japan via a viral video, but there were also some slight reassurances that these company men didn’t necessarily hate their lives. We may have been a bit too optimistic, however, because a study done last year found that less than 30 percent of Japanese man can confidently say, “I am happy.” Well… that’s some statistic.

What’s behind the unhappiness factor among Japanese men? Bad marriages, work problems, convenience store diets? Accomplished Japanese author Reiko Yuyama gives her two yen on the root of the problem.

Japan
(business • culture • Japanese men • salarymen • unhappy)

Survey Reveals 24% of Workers in Japan Have Less Than $2.84 to Spend on Lunch

Michelle Lynn Dinh
Jan 22, 2013

According to a 2012 survey of 2,000 Shinsei Bank employees, the average worker now spends 510 yen (US $5.79) on lunch every day. That’s down from 710 yen (US $8.06) in 2001 and 600 yen (US $6.81) in 2007. That’s a 30% decrease in twelve years.

Nikkan Spa, a popular magazine in Japan, conducted its own survey and found an even bleaker outcome. In a survey of 100 salarymen (office workers) and public servants in their 30s and 40s, a surprising 64 percent of workers admitted that they spend 500 yen (US $5.67) or less on lunch. An even more astonishing 24 percent of workers get by on just 250 yen (US $2.84) a day.

A measly 250 yen (US $2.84) won’t even buy a beef bowl at Sukiya, famed to be the cheapest lunch around. If these salarymen can’t even afford the cheapest meals available for purchase, what exactly are they eating? Let’s take a peek inside the slimmed-down lunchboxes of Japan’s typical worker.