More than 10% of Japan’s population is now age 80 or older, the government said Monday, the latest worrying milestone in the rapidly graying country’s demographic crisis.
This is exactly it. Their young population is heavily overworked and underpaid. There is no work life balance, there is only showing dedication to the company. And for this you often aren’t even paid enough to move out of your parents house.
To put this in perspective- in Japanese offices there is a thing called hanko. It’s a small stamp that is unique to each person. Memos are often printed on paper, then circulated, then each worker stamps it with their hanko to indicate they’ve read it. This caused huge problems during COVID and many offices refused to close simply because the management didn’t want to try any sort of ‘digital hanko’.
The obvious answer to a Western culture is ‘that’s fucking stupid, replace that with any sort of e-document manager that tracks access and save a ton of time and paper and money’. But in Japan, the gray-haired manager gets respect and is not questioned so the hanko continues. The worker does not stand up and say ‘I demand more money and better working conditions’ because that is not how things work.
So of course the overworked, underpaid, 20something year old who is just scraping by has no time to go out and try to meet a partner, let alone start a family they won’t have time for.
As a nation, they will reap what they sow. The nation is turning gray and there will be nobody to care for them, or replace them. I think they will come out stronger- perhaps in 10-20 years when more of the older traditional people die, some of the younger folks can make serious changes. But for now they need radical reform if they want to avoid a very unhappy decade.
| I think they will come out stronger- perhaps in 10-20 years when more of the older traditional people die, some of the younger folks can make serious changes.
Why does this sound like how Rogaine works with hair?
This is exactly it. Their young population is heavily overworked and underpaid. There is no work life balance, there is only showing dedication to the company. And for this you often aren’t even paid enough to move out of your parents house.
To put this in perspective- in Japanese offices there is a thing called hanko. It’s a small stamp that is unique to each person. Memos are often printed on paper, then circulated, then each worker stamps it with their hanko to indicate they’ve read it. This caused huge problems during COVID and many offices refused to close simply because the management didn’t want to try any sort of ‘digital hanko’.
The obvious answer to a Western culture is ‘that’s fucking stupid, replace that with any sort of e-document manager that tracks access and save a ton of time and paper and money’. But in Japan, the gray-haired manager gets respect and is not questioned so the hanko continues. The worker does not stand up and say ‘I demand more money and better working conditions’ because that is not how things work.
So of course the overworked, underpaid, 20something year old who is just scraping by has no time to go out and try to meet a partner, let alone start a family they won’t have time for.
As a nation, they will reap what they sow. The nation is turning gray and there will be nobody to care for them, or replace them. I think they will come out stronger- perhaps in 10-20 years when more of the older traditional people die, some of the younger folks can make serious changes. But for now they need radical reform if they want to avoid a very unhappy decade.
| I think they will come out stronger- perhaps in 10-20 years when more of the older traditional people die, some of the younger folks can make serious changes.
Why does this sound like how Rogaine works with hair?
I don’t think so. This sounds like a stunting that only ever leads to the same method of doing things.
By the way, holy shit is Japan inefficient.