How Many Hours Per Week Do Japanese Work? | Street Poll

When it comes to Japan, one of the most common social issues you’d associate with the country is probably its overwork culture. But did you know that according to the Japanese Labor Law, only 8 hours a day, or 40 hours a week, is allowed? So does this perception of overwork or even death from overwork hold true in 2021? We did our Asian Boss street poll to find out.

The opinions expressed in this video are those of individual interviewees alone and do not reflect the views of ASIAN BOSS or the general Japanese population.

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[MarceloKuchiki]

plot twist: the amount of people working 80+ hours is actually way higher but most of them couldn't answer the question cause they were working!!!

[cinders]

Most of the people working 80+ hours couldn't partake in the poll cause they were still at work.

[chelsea]

I wish you would have broken down the categories better. 40-60 is a huge spread.

[squareroot_]

So she wasn’t able to get 100 respondents in 6 hours, and she’s doing a survey on overwork. Good job @asianboss for not making her go overtime 😂🤙🏼

[BobbyJett]

It would be more meaningful to have more narrower range of hours - <40, 40-50, 50-60, 60-70, 80+ for example.

[scentedlikerose]

I could never work in Japan. I literally RUN out when my shift is over🏃‍♀️💨

[oker]

Why would you group it like this?

This is a really bad poll to be honest.

When the expectation, even from countries very far from Japan, is that a general "standard" work week is 40h, ,
why would you group "40-60h" in the same category like it's nothing? A 20 hour disparity is a massive amount.

[erpekito]

There's a big issue with this poll, first, how do you group together 40 hours with 60? That's a huge gap, it would make more sense to do 40-45 at most. And second, if someone works 8+ hours, they're probably working, unless this is shot on a Sunday, but it would probably be smarter to shoot 2 hours in the morning, 2 hours in the afternoon and 2 hours in the night to get all kinds of people instead of 6 hours straight

[crochet-and-coffee]

Am I the only person who is focused on how neatly the stickers are stuck in a row😂. Japanese indeed.

[kevinta]

As foreigners, we used to leave the company just 5 minutes after work time ends. But all our Japanese colleagues still stayed there.

[michellebao]

oh man the dad who told his son he needed to work more: comedic gold

[eugene]

the reason why the population of East Asia is going down

[mikromue]

A 40-60 hours category makes no sense.

[joeldong-joesuh]

I'd like to see a street poll like this but for China

[scentedlikerose]

I wish you guys could’ve been a little more precise with the hours instead of doing large ranges. I think dividing it up to 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80+ would’ve been neat so I can get a better idea on the actual hours people worked. Also asking if they were considered part time or full time at their job would’ve been nice too.

[enanthate]

The sad part is that while the government (on paper) says overwork is bad, the factories (on paper) say they'll reduce overwork hours for their workers, some workers themselves fill their chests with pride when speaking about all the hundreds hours of overtime work they do.

[tahiraalaraf]

Need a korean version now. Cuz i heard that even the students that work part time, work about 50 hours a week (200 a month) along with their continuous classes and studies.

[canadien]

working more hours doesnt equal to better productivity. asia has to learn this

[rickprime]

Overtime does not mean the same as in the west, most don't get paid for overtime. Not doing overtime makes them look bad too, they don't want to be seen as "lazy" or "selfish" for leaving work before anyone else.

[JeneralSurgeon]

results are skewed bc those working >80 hours a week are probably at work XD