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Japanese companies tend to push current employees to work overtime rather than increase hiring when they get busy. Labor shortages are forcing firms in some industries to have employees work longer.

9 Comments

Koya Miyamae, an economist at SMBC Nikko Securities in Tokyo. (Bloomberg)

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9 Comments
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I believe that's called wage theft, exploitation and greed.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Labor shortages are forcing firms in some industries to have employees work longer.

Work longer, work tireder, make more mistakes, lose customer trust, lose customers, less income, cut workers, make remaining workers work even longer...etc.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

The labor shortage is a pure MYTH. If there really WERE a labor shortage, employees wouldn't have to put up with this nonsense as they could simply get a job somewhere else. They can't because there is no labor shortage. Nobody wants to quit, because they know they can't get a job elsewhere. Companies are taking advantage of this by squeezing their employees for all their worth, and blaming it on a false, economic construct.

Reality?

They are forcing their employees to work overtime because they can.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

I believe that's called wage theft, exploitation and greed.

Most Japanese salaried employees get paid for that overtime, don't forget. There are those that do not, but most do.

All in my office do, which is why many voluntarily work late.

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

How about passing a law that says you have to pay workers DOUBLE for EVERY hour of overtime? You'd have the bosses screaming at people to go home, and the problem of overwork would disappear in a year.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"Voluntarily." Yeah.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

I don't think that's unique to Japan.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

It would be interesting to see what happens if people opt out. I'm not required to but we have a lot of "voluntary" stuff where I work and believe me, it's voluntary in name only. It's obligatory. People are like, "Oh gosh, part of the job and all!" to make up for it, but it amounts to unpaid overtime all same and they still do it "voluntarily." I have a good friend who was a part-time worker. She worked 60 hours a week. Voluntarily.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

"Voluntarily." Yeah.

Yes, in my office, voluntarily. Many choose to not work overtime and go home at 1700 or 1730. Some choose to work later and are paid for that time. There isn't much pressure to work late and the department head always leaves at 1730 or at the latest 1800.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

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