How many hours a week do people work in Tokyo? How much vacation time can one take?

Question

What is the most amount they can work? What is the vacation time that is alloted?

Answer 1

Well that's a hard question to give a straight answer to because basically it all depends on the employer.

For example I worked in IT in Japan and I went to work at around 8:30AM (Business actually started at 9:00) and worked up til 7:30 - 8:00ishPM usually (Officially the office closed at 6:00) Which is not great but not bad either.

I didn't get paid overtime but vacation was easy to take and the pay was pretty good.
Annually we got 8 days off which doesn't seem like alot. But you also have to factor in that Japan has a lot more national holidays compared to the US.
They also have "Golden Week" in May. So some people may say it's not enough, but I was satisfied with it.

There were crunch time seasons and if for instance key people quit in short intervals the work load sometimes was overwhelming.
I've had nights where I didn't go home because the deadline was closing. But then again if I did pull an all nighter at the office, I usually went home in the morning and took the next day off. (Without using my paid vacation)
So that was cool.

I have a friend who works in realestate in Japan and he gets into the office at 7:00AM and works until 10:00 - 11:00PM at times. And this is not that rare either. He never takes vacation even though he's allowed to because there's just too much to do.
I have another friend who works in advertisement agency and he gets to come in at 10:00 and leave at 6:00. And rarely does overtime.
I have friends working in banks and they also do a strict 9 to 5. with no overtime.

So it all depends.
But as it is well known, most Japanese business people do not leave the office at closing time. They will usually stay at least an hour after the closing bell rings.

Answer 2

You can put a lot of fluff on this, but the truth is that Japanese people rarely take vacations that are more that a long weekend unless there is a death in the family, or some other similar reason. One generally has 20-30 paid holidays, but they are rarely, if ever, used.

It is funny that you said "...the most...". Basically, the more the better. So you have people coming home late at night and coming into the office early in the morning. Not fun at all.

Good luck.

Answer 3

It really depends.

In general, an office worker is supposedly working fom 8:30 - 17:00 with a half hour or so for lunch. BUT, few people actually leave at 17:00 because if anyone else is working late, it is "rude" or "lazy" to leave before them. Many Japanese friends say that even though they are not busy, many workers stay at least an hour or two late. Peer pressure is extremely strong in Japan.
In some companies, nobody actually needs to work late, but nobody wants to be the first to leave, so everyone sits around pretending to work until the boss leaves.
Meanwhile the boss or upper management may be reading newspapers (or comics) all day, and just stay late because they want to appear busy.
Beyond that, it is very common to have to go out for dinner and drinks with your co-workers and/or clients. Sometimes several nights a week.
So, trains at 11PM are sometimes MORE crowded than those at 5PM.

Still, there ARE plenty of people who work their butts off, possibly taking up the slack for the ones who read comics all day. Add in unhealthy eating habits, no exercise, obligatory heavy drinking, chain smoking, and a few people drop dead.

There are 3 vacation weeks (New Year's, Golden Week in April/May, O-Bon in summer)
Lucky workers and senior workers may get up to 9 days off in each case.
Busy workers feel lucky if they get 3 days off in each case.

Personal days can reach 20 per year, but it is "rude" to use them all. Many people don't even use half of them.