Most people don’t dream of success, they dream of a less painful commute.

That is DARK

“Let me interrupt my existential dread with how good this famichiki rice ball is”

Can we talk about how good his writing and delivery off all this is. It's incredible

7:24 seeing a train full of people in suits at midnight is so bizarre

Your daily life is truly extremely harsh… stay strong. I’m currently living in Taiwan, but after watching your videos… I found out how similar some Taiwanese companies are to Japanese companies… at least the one I’m working in right now. One of my coworkers even got a seizure from fatigue, and was hospitalized last week. All my manager said was she still needs to improve her work, despite she’s still in the hospital.

I have no words with this work culture when I can work from home and watch this while working.

I was sick and ended up in the hospital for a week. My boss continually checked in to make sure I was okay and he always stressed the importance of our health over our job. He always says “Nothing here is life and death, no matter how much some people like to pretend it is. Don’t stress and take care of yourself.” While my job is very stressful and demanding, I am grateful to have such a good boss who prioritizes people over production.

The perfect mix of resignment, rebellion and humour is so enjoyable

Stay late, skip lunch, and remember: you're replaceable.

14 hour day in Tokyo kaisha: 1 hour commute to work. 2 hours to prepare reports. 30 mins talking to stressed out bucho, trying to get him calmed down, and reach some consensus. 1 hour reading emails from coworkers and memos from boss. 1 hour team meeting sharing stress over goals, or lack of goals. 1 hour lunch break. 1 hour meeting with kacho and boss. 2 hours pretending to be busy and trying to get things done. 2 hours respond to new memo from boss, and confusing emails from coworkers. 1 hour write email to boss and kacho assuring them that the deadlines will be met. Shuffle papers then take a nap at desk. Work day is done. Walk back to station and catch packed commuter train back to home station taking 1 hour. Up at 7 am and repeat

I read recently that Japan is one of the least productive countries amongst first world countries. Looks like Tokyo salaryman is spot on.

There is a reason why some countries in Europe are trying a 6 hour work day or 4 day work week with 10 hours or 4 days of work and 1 day of home office, because shocker... Rested and not stressed workers are way more productive than what we saw in this video in half that time.

Man this is brutal. I hope you can escape this cycle.

No company has the right to make anyone work 14 hours a day on a daily basis. Everyone needs 16 hours a day of personal time for transportation to and from work, sleep and taking care of personal matters such as eating, paperwork and laundry and perhaps some time for recreation.

Halfway through ranting…

“Oh shit, this food slaps!”

Same bro, same.

The lack of actual productivity is so painful because not only are you sacrificing your time, but it's underpaid because it isn't actually producing value that results in better compensation for you. As an aside, I am a US lawyer and have been dealing with a large Korean conglomerate client. They constantly give my team rush deadlines including over weekends so executives can discuss an issue urgently, but after a month they have made no decisions and just ask the same things in different ways. Also, they constantly change basic facts about the company.

Corporate Japan sounds like a nightmare

This is crazy. This life must be so exhausting and stressful. I can't imagine going through this everyday. The hours you get home are ridiculous, and you still need to wake up in a few hours and do it all over again. Geeez😢

Was born and raised in Japan, now living in USA. I love Japan and Japanese people. This made me cry. I pray that things will improve for you. God Bless You!

Makes me appreciate my remote job even more.
Sending all the best wishes to you man! Jakub from Poland