What's The Cost Of Being The Hardest Workers In The World? | Deciphering Japan | Episode 2/4

Whilst watching this documentary one can't help but observe that in Japan even fruit are treated with more love and appreciation than many human beings.

The strange thing about Japanese work ethic is that the corporate jobs are often filled with unproductive work... like literally spending hours in the office in routines that kill time...

The melon lady has her own quiet pace of life, her own business and her own rhythm without having to endure office politics. She is one of the fortunate few.

My honest word when dealing with Japanese clients is that they spend alot of time dwelling on nonsensical issues and complicating works. Although their culture of mastery is respected all around the world, that very culture itself is killing their productivity and efficiency.

This is a high quality documentary. It's feels like a crime to watch this for free.

I think Japan is the only country in the world where you sue a company for some ridiculous amount of money and still go back to work for them.

Always remember, your job is always replaceable. When you’re gone they won’t care. Always take care ourselves first physically espc mentally before anything else.

I worked 10 years in an office job in japan, and the reality is that the japanese spend a lot of time at work because of company pressure, but they do not work very hard at all, most of the time they are just screwing around.

I work in Japan, and I have noticed most of the time is spent procrastinating and attending meaningless meetings. So it's not entirely true that the Japanese are working hard to Karoshi.

The only thing I didn't like about this documentary is that it ended. I could easily watch another hour of this.

I didn't even notice this was a almost 50 min documentary, amazingly well produced and very relevant for any society at the moment, not matter where you live

"Melons are just so intriguing, once you focus on them it's all you think about" The culture is strong with this woman.

Conclusion: Its good to travel in Japan but not live in it.

And this documentary did not even cover the mandatory over-drinking.

I am one of those fortunate commuters in Tokyo who have watched master handpan musician, Kashiwa Hang, “work.” It was so relaxing to listen to and watch him play his handpans. I caught two of his performances in Akihabara. It was mesmerizing! I even uploaded that performance of his in my youtube channel too. I hope to see more of him.

Melon lady is so proud of her job, it’s an inspiration!

I've work in Japan many times. There is a concept called 生き甲斐 (Ikigai) or reason for living, devotion to purpose etc. Japanese people work a lot of hours. But that makes them zombies. Just because you work many hours does not mean your productive, in fact it's the opposite. Working 18/7 makes you a zombie, it does not make you "hard working" it means you show up.

If you do all your work in time and leave at 6, your boss will think that you don’t have enough work to do, so you get more work, so you end up staying late. You just can’t win.

Its relatable here in the US as well: complete your high school education, pick a degree in college at the age of 17/18 and hope that you are still interested in pursuing that line of work once you finish college. There is enormous amount of pressure on the youth to pick their "life" long path early in life and in high school all they talk about is college. When some 50% of Americans hate their jobs we have clearly failed as a society. We also put so much emphasis on being a productive worker and contributing to the company but we forget that there is an individual with their own needs and wants. People in the US may not work as much as the Japanese but its not uncommon to be forced into over time work when a coworker calls out or when there is short staffing. This is often notorious in the retail and food industry when the turnover rate is astronomical (low pay, lack of appreciation, working hours) but yet somehow we still continue with business as usual. The US is also at a precipice where we have to decide what is more important being a productive "drone" in society just to amass more stuff or be happy and content as an individual in a work place that truly understands your value and worth. We can't continue to equate that productivity = happiness.

I love the anchor, she is so amazing and natural never trying to make situation anything else than it really is and doing it so respectfully.