過労死

The Japanese work ethic continues to astound me.

Today I had a Japanese lesson starting at 7 PM.  My teacher usually meets me right after work and we sit for an hour or so and have a Japanese lesson while drinking tea or coffee and eating some sort of cafe snack as dinner.
After our lesson today, she went back to the office after having already put in a full 11 or 12 hours there.  She said she had a really busy week coming up but wanted to go home to see her family for the holiday.  So she spent some extra time at work in order to be able to travel to her hometown for the weekend.
As far as I know, with most companies in Japan there is no clocking overtime.  Some people get paid year-end bonuses, but mostly it's just expected that you'll stay late and get your work done because it's your duty and it's what's expected of you.  This is not the only time she's stayed late at her work, and she often goes in on the weekends too.  No wonder there is a word for "dying of overwork" in Japanese.　過労死　karoushi

Don't worry.  I'm not feeling this way about my own work, I'm just shocked that people put themselves through this kind of overwork long enough to cause death.  I guess it's because there is a culture of pushing through what you dislike simply because it's your duty to society, or to your family.  Also, appearing weak is not acceptable in Japan.

Lana