A law that will be submitted during this parliamentary session will require Japanese companies to make sure their employees take at least five vacation days a year.
The country guarantees workers at least 10 vacation days a year. But barely half ever get taken. Part of the reason is that workers don’t get sick days and have to use vacation instead, so most people save a few days each year.
While the country has been studying this kind of legislation for years, a consensus developed in recent years that its work ethic is hurting people’s health and productivity. About 22 percent of Japanese workers put in more than 49 hours a week, compared to 16 percent of Americans and 11 percent of French and Germans. The Japanese have a word for working oneself to death, “karoshi,” and the government estimates there are 200 such deaths each year. Suicides aren’t included in that figure.
Extreme work is also thought to be hurting the country’s birth rate, which hit a record low last year, as couples may feel they have no time to raise children. The country also offers little support for working mothers and still relies heavily on gender stereotypes that lead some women to feel they have to choose between having children and having a job.
Japanese culture may be particularly workaholic, but at least workers there are guaranteed the option to take paid vacation time. The United States, on the other hand, doesn’t require any paid vacation or holiday time, unlike all other developed countries. Bills to start requiring it haven’t gone anywhere. About a quarter of the workforce doesn’t have access to any paid vacation or holidays. Those who do get it are also getting less, as the average number of vacation days fell from 15 to 10 between 2013 and 2014.
And Americans also live in a culture of overwork. Of those who do get paid vacation time, only half will get used on average. Fifteen percent won’t take any time off at all. As of October last year, over half of Americans said they hadn’t taken a single vacation day. Many people who don’t take time off say it’s because their boss doesn’t encourage it or they feel they have too much to get done.
At the same time, Americans put in some very long hours. The supposed 40-hour workweek is actually 47 hours, on average. We come in well above average in hours worked each year compared to other developed countries, working harder than Germany, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
As Japan may be discovering, working so hard without taking a break often does more harm than good. Different studies have found that any initial boost in productivity from working more than 60 hours a week quickly disappears. Others show that people who take vacation come back to work significantly more productive.