Germans, Japanese Work More, Says New Tokyo Official
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TOKYO — Japan’s new labor minister said Monday that Japan and Germany have strong economies because their people work more than Americans and workers in other industrialized nations.
The remarks by Labor Minister Masakuni Murakami were reminiscent of comments by Japanese officials that irked trading partners by seeming to criticize work habits in Japan’s economic rivals.
Murakami also was wrong as far as Germany is concerned. Studies say Germans spend less time on the job than workers in the other six leading industrial nations.
And while Japanese work more hours than Americans, U.S. workers produce more per hour.
Later, Murakami said he did not mean that workers in the other nations are idlers.
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