There's a lot of working, intelligent people who would happily emigrate to Japan if:
- They weren't somewhat hostile to immigration
- Their working culture wasn't borderline slavery
- They weren't somewhat hostile to immigration
- Their working culture wasn't borderline slavery
Slavery means people are not remunerated and have no personal freedom. Japanese are definitely remunerated and definitely have personal freedom.
"お疲れ様でした" (otsukaresamadeshita) = "Thank you for your hard work".
Japan takes great pride in work. Just because you don't understand the culture doesn't give you the right to call it slavery.
If you want to invoke a discussion on slavery in East Asia, do it in the right context.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewelinaochab/2020/04/04/the-fat...
It is what is binding women to work in Japan because living cost is high.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_a...
There is absolutely nothing controversial about stating that work conditions in Japan are appalling. Calm down.
If your entire waking hours have to be dedicated to working, what's the point of having a wage at all?
I already know that Japanese culture takes great pride in work. I wasn't being literal with the word "slavery" (that's why I added "borderline" next to it). That pride doesn't make the day magically last longer than 24 hours.
Being passionate with your work is great and all. But time is finite, and life passes by. If I'm left with no time to cultivate any hobbies or even spend quality time with my family and/or friends, then I don't see the point at all.
Is American "crunch culture" any better? Does that crunch culture in America represent America as a whole?
"The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development does annual research into the amount of work done by the average citizen in a given country over the course of the year. According to these statistics, these countries rank higher than Japan in terms of average working time in a year: Mexico, South Korea, Greece, Chile, Russia, Poland, Latvia, Israel, Iceland, Ireland, Estonia, Portugal, and the United States. Even New Zealand ranks higher than Japan on documented hours worked."
It is a matter of fact that the working conditions of the average salaryman are not well suited towards building families. There are more than enough statistics to support this fact, however, you need to be careful about the target demographics of the workers. Additionally, the social and cultural pressure to spend time with your coworkers and your boss after work means further time spent away from your (possible) family.
I don't really understand why it is so difficult for you to accept the fact that Japanese working culture is not suitable for the 21st century. Automation and effiency is increasing accross nearly all white-collar industries and Japanese traditions still see it fit to mandate "arrive before your boss, leave after (sic!) him".
I bet this explains a lot of why people are not interested in having children anymore. Why to have children, if you will not be able to even afford a house for them, and working your ass off will preclude enjoying their company.
and im not praising that im just showing the good side of it and not only the bad side "working too hard". no model is perfect
I don't want to come off as critiquing you, but this is an important point if you want to understand other people and their value systems
i honestly don't want to see countries import large swaths of people who don't agree with their culture and values the way europe has, its sad to see it happen
the americas are much better at handling immigration, but eurasian countries should probably not try to copy it too hard. a better solution is to fix the culture and encourage women to have children