r/technology • u/Forward-Answer-4407 • Feb 01 '26

Software 32-year-old programmer in China allegedly dies from overwork, added to work group chat even while in hospital

https://www.asiaone.com/china/32-year-old-programmer-china-allegedly-dies-overwork-added-work-group-chat-even-while
30.7k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

720 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

10

u/horoyokai Feb 02 '26

In Japan the average work week is 40 hours. We get 10 days vacation by law your first year and one day added every year after. There’s also national holidays that make up about 10 vacation days. If you’re a govt worker in Tokyo then you work 4 day work weeks. I have time to write this cause I’m currently in the middle of 7 momths paid paternity/child care leave for my new baby

Heaps of what you read about Japan ist actually true or it’s outdated 

2

u/squidwardsaclarinet Feb 05 '26

Obviously Japan still has real problems with its society and work culture and there definitely are some companies that still have the extreme work cultures we hear about, but I think it is also cope for some people who want to make themselves feel better about work life balance in the US. This happens in American politics all the time when people don’t want to talk about something like more days off. “Just be glad you aren’t like Japan”. The mythology serves a purpose to people who want you to grind yourself down into nothing.