日本の仕事（終わり）

After a month, our group study program is over, and I have experienced a lot from this Japan trip. Although a month is not a long time for us to get well with all the Japanese students and becoming a part of the real Japanese culture, it still a really nice experience, especially for me, a person who has never been to Japan before. Before we start our trip, my discussion problem for my project is “how Japanese jobs influence Japanese people lifestyle and Japanese culture?” and after a month of observation and research, I think I am good to answer this question.

The Japanese working environment is totally different from the environment in Canada and in China, because the workers in Japan have their own traditional workplace culture and lifestyle which influence their daily life. However, the traditional Japanese culture are strongly impacted by modern culture especially in these few years and the influence is much obvious on single workers lifestyle. Japan is a fast-paced country and individuals’ lifestyle are being fast as well, so the traditional Japanese lifestyle is impacted by the fast-paced culture. During the program, when I went out and go to Tokyo, there were a lot of times that I saw a huge amount of people were sitting or standing in the train with suite even the weather in Tokyo is almost 30 degrees. Japanese people are being serious to everything in every daily life and their rules in the society have forced them to be same as other people. Therefore, most single young workers have similar lifestyle and that kind of lifestyle is completely different from the older Japanese people lifestyle.

After a month of observation, most Japanese workers work pretty late and it is normal to see a lot of people take midnight train and get back home. From my roommate, I heard that recently Japanese workers are able to earn extra payment if they are working overtime but it not a high payment compare to Canada. Canadian workers can earn two to three times of their salary if they work overtime, but Japanese workers are only able to earn 1.3 to 1.5 times of the payment. Although the overtime salary in Japan is low, Japanese workers still have to work overtime almost everyday to make sure they can finish their target for week or for month on time. Another thing that I learned from my host family is that although sixty is the retired age for Japan civilization, but the company can “rehire” them if they are looking forward to continuing their work. That makes many Japanese family have wired schedule every day because each family member works overtime, and they have different schedule every day which makes them feel hard to make a comfortable schedule for the whole family.

There are still a lot of impacts from the jobs in Japan which I do not have plenty of time to find out because I only stay in Japan for a month. I hope I can go to Japan for a longer time study, and I will find out more at that time. By the way, this trip is an awesome experience.