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I’ve been working as a translator for a Japanese IT (information technology) company since June this year, even though I’m such a computer-illiterate person. lol Anyway, it just happened and my translation work doesn’t really require something technical so much, and even if it does, I can always ask around the engineers to get the exact image.

So my point here is that I’ve got a chance to see inside　of a Japanese IT industry.
I’ve worked at a few Japanese companies so far, but I’ve never ever seen that employees are working day and night almost without sleeping!! In fact, what’s happening in the company I work for now is that delivery deadline is close and employees are staying up (over-time work) till midnight or even till 3 or 4am next morning and then start working from 9am again next day (already the same day!) .

Some male workers are working overnight for 2 days and 2 nights. I’m so shocked to know that. I couldn’t believe what I heard and what’s more, it was even shocking to me that those who are compelled to work like that say it’s how it is and they don’t feel anything about that! I wonder how could such working condition be taken as granted and approved!? (FYI, the company I work for now is a large corporation that every Japanese person from children to the elderly definitely knows its name.) I wouldn’t be able to accept that if I were the worker who had to work like that. I mean, if it’s my own business and my own project and I want to do it overnight with excitement, based on my own will, that would be possible but being kind of forced by a boss and doing this every now and then as a matter or course is just no way to me!! (T___T)

I told this story to some people including my husband and again I was shocked how most of them said that it’d be normal in Japan. I still feel shocked today.

BTW, I found this graph from Expedia Japan how difficult it is for the Japanese to take paid holidays. The graph shows in gray how many paid holidays were given yearly (in 2012) and how many of them were actually taken in red. I remember a German girl told me before that it was normal in Germany to have 30 paid holidays besides some sick leaves. In Japan, we have to use paid holidays for sick leaves. I don’t know if sick leaves are given aside from paid holidays in all of the other countries in this graph. If so, that should be also mentioned to illustrate how our working situation is outstandingly miserable!!

As you can imagine, this company is not doing something illegal. The workers working extra hours get paid extra. This is how the Japanese workers defend the deadline to the death. There’s imbalance of employment in our society that such workers are working like a horse while many people are jobless. Work sharing has never worked out in Japan.

I wonder…would it be normal in your country as well to do over-time work till 3 or 4am and start working for the next day from 9am again and do such from time to time when deadline is close? I can’t believe most of Japanese workers think it’s normal, but what do you think about that?

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This article is a contributed guest post by Jam of icoSnap.com; a cute travel blog around the world in search for cute places, food, events and more.

===Guest Post starts from here===

5 Reasons why I love shopping in Harajuku:

If you’re like me, Japanese pop culture obsessed then, there’s no reason that Harajuku is probably on your top places to go for shopping or maybe even visit. I have been in Harajuku probably 5 times since 2007. It is like the dreamland for all things Kawaii and there’s no doubt that it is the leading place for fashion in the future.

1. Clothes and accessories are unique. From the tulle dress skirts to polka-dot sarouel pants, when you buy clothes in Harajuku, most likely you’ll never see it anywhere else in the world (well, except if you wear it in Harajuku too).

2. Apparel and shoes are also cheap. Most items that you see other than the brand name stores like Liz Lisa, h.NAOTO, Angelic Pretty, etc. Side street shops are quite cheap you can get tops from 500 Yen and shoes from 1000 Yen – the quality is quite good too.

3. They have a huge Daiso – a 100 Yen (similar to Dollar store but better). They offer a wide variety of home goods, stationary, clothing, food, etc. A great place to buy souvenirs and gifts to your friends back at home.

4. The location is in the heart of Tokyo – it can be accessed easily in the Yamanote green line, its in between Shibuya and Yoyogi.

5. The fashion scene – youngsters dress in Lolita, Gyaru, Mori, Gothic, Punk, etc., in a way that expresses their personality. It brings out the spirit of shopping for uniqueness and individuality.

Have you been to Harajuku before? Let us know your experience.
===end of the post===

Kirin’s opinion:
Thank you Jam for your guest post. As for myself, it’s been a long time since I visited Harajuku last time. Yeah, I guess I can get something nice there, although I’m not dressing Gothic Lolita or punk or whatever unique. Actually I’ve been looking for some winter clothing but nothing looks intriguing to me. I checked out some shopping malls but nothing really looked appealing to me. I guess I could check out Harajuku. (Will post about it if I get something there!)^^

***If you are interested in writing a guest post, please feel free to contact Kirin. I’ll be open for the opportunity again. (Sorry I declined many offers during hiatus, because I wanted to avoid TKE being full of guest posts without my own posts.) The post must be unique, the theme must be related with Japan or Japanese culture, and it must be contributed to TKE for free in exchange for 1 back link to your website.***

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It’s very rare in Tokyo that a stranger who happens to be seated at next table in a restaurant talks to you. But it just happened to us, my co-worker and I, while we were having lunch together during a lunch break. It was an old man that first talked to me if the dish was good. I answered with smile that it was. There was no problem if he only exchanged a few words like that with us.

But in fact, he kept talking on and on that seemed to be directed to us. We were not interested in having any further conversation with that stranger. So both of us just ignored him, and we continued our own conversation. In the mean time, he stopped talking.

It took a while until our tea/coffee were served after the meal. So we urged a waitress several times to bring them to us asap as we had to go back to the office before lunch break was over. I started to feel irritated as time for drinking tea/coffee would not be left even if they were finally served. My co-worker and I were joking with laughter that I’d rather take away my cup of coffee or I’d ask the waitress to stop serving me coffee and instead I’d ask a cashier to deduct that amount from the total. (I was not serious, not intended but just joking.)

Then the man next to me suddenly started to preach us that it was not nice of us to laugh like that and get irritated with not being served promptly, when the waitresses were doing their best under the circumstances. OK maybe he was right. But my co-worker and I were about to tell him to stop talking to us as he has nothing to do with us or whatever we are talking about. Let alone we were not there to listen to his preach! Yet, at the same time, we knew we had no intention of having a quarrel with him for such a stupid matter. So we kept silent. We ignored him, having only half cup of tea/coffee to return to the office promptly, before it got too late.

It was quite an unpleasant lunch time after all. I guess he would complain that the young people are really rude and inconsiderate today. Or is that our lunch break that is too short (60 minutes)? Have you had such an experience before? As it’s not normal that a stranger speaks so much, he must be weird. What do you think?

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