Japan: Slacker Nation?

Young Japanese shun promotions:

In a country once proud of its success-driven "salarymen," managers are grappling with a new phenomenon: Many young workers are shunning choice promotions -- even forgoing raises -- in favor of humdrum jobs with minimal responsibilities.

Even as Japan faces a sharp recession, civil servants are opting out of career-advancing exams and information-technology workers are flocking to headhunters to switch to less-demanding careers. A study this year by the consulting firm Towers Perrin found just 3% of Japanese workers say they're putting their full effort into their jobs -- the lowest of 18 countries surveyed.

That's prompting companies to craft delicate strategies to nudge young workers up the corporate ladder. "I tell them to break news of promotions gently," says Makoto Iwade, a lawyer who advises companies on labor relations. "They should feel employees out first to see if they're ready. Don't shock them."

Employment experts have begun to call these workers hodo-hodo zoku, or the "so-so folks." They say these workers, mostly in their 20s and early 30s, are sapping Japan's international competitiveness at a time when the aging country must raise its productivity to keep the economy growing.

"They'll ruin Japan with their lax work ethic," says labor consultant Yukiko Takita. "They're supposed to be leaders of the next generation."

Glenn Reynolds writes:

In a modern industrial society, it's possible to live quite well without climbing the ladder much. That may be a problem, in time.

My take: I worked for Japanese companies for over six years in intensely cross-cultural work environments. Having taken quite a few business trips to Japan and experiencing their work environment first hand, I'd say that this is what you get when you try to force employees to work the the awful hours of a first year associate at a big law firm in an organization that has all the efficiency of a DC bureaucracy.

The Japanese put in many long hours, but on a per-hour basis seem to be far less productive than their American counterparts. In many instances, it seems face time is considered more important than productivity. That's a broken system and not a good way to make money or live a life. It incentivizes both unnecessarily long hours and leisure-taking at work. I've personally seen more than one Japanese "salaryman" both sleeping and reading newspapers at their desks.

No wonder many Japanese are opting out. I think the bigger question is wondering what took them so long?

P.S. -- Michael Greenspan says this is what happens when you don't have enough income equality.

P.P.S. -- It's not just Japan:

I work for one of the big 3 aerospace/defense companies at a Los Angeles area location, and though I wouldn't say it's nearly as evident as in Japan, young workers in our industry are asking the same questions. We have no hope of achieving the same standard of living as the droves of retiring Boomers and Silents, and the 2% raise differential afforded by a promotion simply isn't enough of an incentive to work 20-30% more hours a week.

If the industry paid overtime, or offered significant bonuses to rank and file employees (bonuses are only available to upper management), a lot of young engineers would respond enthusiastically. In fact, we've asked the company to do these things in recent employee forums. We'd all like to buy homes in the area and raise families here, but the older workers own all the real estate, and most of us assume that we'll give things a few years, but get out of the area once we need to settle down. It's simply too expensive to live in a metro area like L.A. Since the incentive structure doesn't offer us hope of achieving the same lifestyle as the older employees, we don't see much reason to devote our lives to these companies. As I said, the 2% differential doesn't make a whole lot of difference, so why bother with the extra stress?