OpenTube

The Problem with "Depressed Japanese Salaryman" Vlogs

aini

250,380 views

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Why has the depressed Japanese salaryman genre gained such notoriety, and what does this reveal about Japanese society?

Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:40 The carrot and the stick
11:05 Investigating the salaryman vlogs
19:14 Conclusion

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Video references
Paahtis (2026). Japan’s New Problem: Salaryman Grift. [online] YouTube. Available at: Japan's New Problem: Salaryman Grift

Salaryman Tokyo (2026). A Day in the Life: Salaryman at a Black Company 😵 [online] YouTube. Available at: A Day in the Life: Salaryman at a Black Co...
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Academic References
Haga, T., Tanaka, H., Fujiwara, K., Suzuki, Y. and Matsumoto, Y. (2024). REVISION The Impact of Work Hours and Cultural Expectations on Mental Health in Japan. Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences (JHASS), 6(3), pp.163–174. doi:https://doi.org/10.36079/lamintang.jh....

Ono, H. (2018). Why do the Japanese work long hours? Sociological Perspectives on Long Working Hours in Japan. [online] ResearchGate. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publicat...

Riboni, G. (2020). DISCOURSES OF AUTHENTICITY ON YOUTUBE From the Personal to the Professional. [online] Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publicat....

Widarahhesty, Y. (2020). Otsukaresamadeshita!: A Critical Analysis of Japan’s Toxic Work Culture. International Journal of East Asian Studies, 9(1), pp.32–47. doi:https://doi.org/10.22452/ijeas.vol9no1.3.

References
R, S. (2024) The salaryman, pillar of Japanese society. JapanExperience Available at: https://www.japan-experience.com/plan...

Thanks for watching! I'm currently uploading this video in a small café in Taipei, it's sooo hot here I've been having like three milk teas a day lmoaoaoaooo. Hope you're staying cool/warm whereever you are and I hope you have a great day ahead! ☀️

Tags:
video essay, cultural commentary, social commentary, internet analysis, analysis video, Japan work culture, dark side of Japan, salaryman, karoshi, Japanese overwork, Japan overtime, black company Japan, Japanese burnout, Japan work life balance, Japanese office culture, Japanese work ethic, fake salaryman vlog, Japan labor culture, video essay Japan, east asia, Japan, aini

20 Comments

@aini_ Creator 3 months ago Pinned

Thanks to MyHeritage for sponsoring this video! Use my link and code AINI to get your complete DNA kit for just $25/€25, including free shipping and a 30-day free trial: https://bit.ly/aini_MH

@Neomadra 3 months ago

"Performative Suffering" is a great description

@meta1storm 3 months ago

I also recently saw a lot of "35 year old unmarried Chinese woman with no direction in her life" kind of videos.

@MrTobi013 3 months ago (edited)

I really hope these videos and lifestyle don't become some new "trend" to exploit, because trust me, there's nothing trendy about being lonely when you clearly want someone, coming home to an empty house and being exhausted from overworking.😞

@oliverxhmll 3 months ago

Some of these videos have been exposed as fake. Like theyre renting random conference rooms and pretending this is their job and sleeping there lol

@xiphoid2011 3 months ago

Yes, lots of the salarymen videos are fake. And now they are so profitable that lots of chinese are coping it.

@rizalpurwanto2230 3 months ago

you're telling me people are larping depressed salaryman now?

@JoelsAquarium 3 months ago (edited)

There are a bunch of these videos for Japanese women too btw. A bunch of channels called like "Kaori in Japan" with no voice over, just written out English subtitles. And they're all obviously fake, with the subtitles written by random non-Japanese people or AI and randomly layered over the faceless footage of a woman's day. But these women's video are less directly focused on work, and more just them being lonely or depressed and wanting a boyfriend. And a bunch of guys in the comments donating money just like with the fake salarymen, but honestly with an even more sinister tone since everyone is low-key thirsting over the women being like "I could fix you" lmao

@MSTRGae54To 3 months ago (edited)

When i started seeing more than 1 salaryman video, i definitely started to see a pattern that really Reminded me of the infamous Fake restoration videos, or a worse one, Fake animal rescue videos.

@averyaveryavedean 3 months ago (edited)

I feel really bad for people who donate to these scammers, because i think most of them are fakes. The comments seems genuinely concerned too. Its interesting how scammers can always find new platforms and ways to scam people.

@WritingSch 3 months ago

The part about not complaining is interesting because why some people won’t like it, a lot of Western folks use complaining about hardship (especially work and school) to give groups a way to bond

@Paahtis 3 months ago

I think a big reason people fell for these scams is that the whole “Japanese salaryman” lifestyle is so mystified outside Japan. People hear the word karoshi and immediately forget Japan is a regular G7 country where people watch Love Island and eat McDonald’s.

It seems like my slop did some good work, and I’m glad to see more people talking about this.

@mikefunnyasl 3 months ago

ONE VIDEO! That's literally all it takes.
You watch one of these videos and your entire feed gets flooded with them.

It didn't take me long to realize what’s really going on, they're straight up profiting off people's hearts. They tug at your emotions so you'll donate, subscribe, engage and stuff.. The whole thing is engineered.
I've clicked "Not interested" and "Don't recommend this channel" more times than I can count, and they still keep showing up. The algorithm just doesn't care. 🤦
And now we've got these "documentary" and "investigation" channels popping up, pretending to expose what's happening. They make money off the empathetic viewers.. and then the exposers make money off the original grifters. It's one big disgusting cycle.
Just this week alone, this is the third "investigation" video I've seen about these channels. I’m so sick of it.
YouTube is dead. It's been dead ever since monetization took over. The mid 2000s were actually fun and real. Now it's just layer after layer of bs!

Now if you excuse moi I'm gonna touch some grass. 😑

@arro2546 3 months ago

Finally, a good video to watch while milking cows

@deekei 3 months ago (edited)

as someone whos been working in japan for over 10 years, some of your information might be inaccurate.
- karoshi is a massive problem but there have been steps to curb overworking hours since 2019, where companies are now mandated to prevent excess work hours and to encourage (or force) people to properly use their paid time off, since even if a worker had PTO saved up societal norms prevented them from using it

-nomikai culture is decreasing drastically since covid, and japan has problem of alot of izakayas shutting down due to lack of customers cos alot of the younger and now older heisei generations not drinking as much as the showa generations

-there are still alot of companies that tries to curb the new laws but are labelled black kigyo and usually made known across the net. japans going through a labor shortage crisis so alot of companies keep that mind to not shy away new workers

Also the reason japans OECD Productivity index is so low is also because japans demographics is tilted so heavily towards seniors and retirees, and the overal japanese Economy stagnating badly post-bubble, but thats probably a different topic

@datdamnmonkey 3 months ago

I started to get suspicious these videos were fake when I started seeing a bunch of them showing up, Japanese and Chinese, and the video names would get more click bate every time like "life of a man in his 30s with no friends and working til death". Like, buddy, you're doing too much, this is clearly fake. But tbh at one time I really thought they were real, right at the beginning when there weren't that many of them. Now my brain just automatically categorizes these videos as brain rot every time my YT algorithm tried to push one on me.

@Alluring_Phantom 3 months ago

I used to work an 80 hour week labour job in Ireland. Minimum wage. It was awful. No time or energy to make videos. Nobody would watch it anyway, because it's not Japan or Korea.

@Ceilingkatwatchesus 2 months ago

Thank you. I’ve been called it out. But performative suffering is definitely a better phrased. I started to see these vid randomly popped up on my algorithm. Then I noticed after a few videos. I was like, “ wait a minute.” Who’s doing all the filming, editing, etc. if they are sooo “busy” even the women as well.

@KevさんCFC 3 months ago

Reminder, don't give your money to online grifters.

@monriatitans 3 months ago

Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:40 The carrot and the stick
8:09 MyHeritage Ad
9:38 The carrot and the stick continued
11:05 Investigating the salaryman vlogs
19:14 Conclusion