Japan Wants Workers to Take It a Little Easier
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TOKYO — Japan’s labor ministry Wednesday approved a plan to try to get Japanese workers to stop working so hard.
A labor ministry spokesman said Japanese work an average of 2,111 hours a year, compared to 1,900 hours for their counterparts in the United States and Britain and 1,600 hours in West Germany and France.
The spokesman, who admitted working an average of about 2,800 hours a year, said the five-year plan aimed to bring Japanese working hours down to about 1,800 hours a year by 1992.
The ministry will encourage Japanese companies to reduce overtime work and to offer longer paid vacations.
The Japanese are sometimes called a nation of “workaholics” because of their dedicated hard work, which has contributed to the country’s postwar economic success.
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