> Here's an idea. Make companies pay extra compensation if employees work overtime. I guarantee you companies will be literally pushing their employees out the door at 6 PM then.

Most companies already do pay extra compensation for overtime, at least in theory. The reality is that there's an informal pressure for employees not to declare their overwork time or they could use various loopholes that make them technically "not overwork".

Officially, Japanese labor laws look pretty good on paper. In Japan, most obstacles are informal which apparently the government can't really regulate.