Personally, I've heard about Japan's low birth rates before watching Komuro's ted talk. Hearing about Japan having one of the lowest birth rates in the world doesn't surprise me as I've heard news about it a lot. I remember people even mentioning that's why Spy X Family is being so popular and has so many collabs, even with the government. I think it's to encourage people to start families. Personally, I've noticed the great amount of family anime and dramas coming out regarding kids or raising kids.
I may not understand the idea or need for these harsh business hours, but it's ridiculous in my opinion. With how much media or even vlogs that Japanese people do, they highlight the misery of working or work time abuse. I think one of the most popular media showing the harsh work time abuse is ZOM 100, a new anime. The whole concept is Tendo, a 24-year-old man, has been working with a film company the last 3 years and that's all he's known. His house is a mess, he doesn't eat health, till Japan breaks out in a zombie crisis and sees his boss has become a zombie. He sees this as a chance to make 100 things he missed out on the last 3 years that he wants to do before becoming a zombie.
The manga was super popular when it was releasing. It gained a lot of traction in America, and I feel that's where a lot of people realized how rigorous the work force is. A lot of people compared it to the American work force. I personally think the American work force isn't as hard as the Japanese work force, though I wonder is university a step Japanese people take, or do they go straight into the work force? I've heard that it's straight into the work force though I could be wrong. I think in America it's a lot more common to have people go to university then go to a job.
It's crazy to me with the fact that they're encouraging families, when they barely have time to even socialize outside of work. I feel bad for Komuro when she spoke about being afraid of her child crying thinking he was going to die from being sick because she was so busy. It makes me wonder do women in the work force not have the same hours as men? She mentions that men work very late, so do women get to leave early? I know there is roles seen in Japan as being men do this and women do this, so maybe?
Thank you for sharing this. I appreciate your explanation of family related anime. Im not familiar with anime as it wasn't that popular when I started learning Japanese. Very interesting. From my experience working in Japan, only women who were not married or who did not have children stayed late. If they were married they were expected to go home to take care of family, but that also meant they did not get promoted often. In general we stayed at work until the boss left. For my job I often worked more than 40 hours a week. During the 3 months prior to the olympics I worked nearly 60-80 hours a week.... there were bunkbeds at the office so we didn't need to go home! I hope things have changed.
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