About 22% of Japanese work more than 49 hours a week, compared with 16% of US workers and 11% in France and Germany, according to data from the Japanese government. “Nobody else uses their vacation days,” says Erika Sekiguchi, a 36-year-old employee. She spends 14 hours a day at work and used only eight of her 20 days of paid vacation in 2014, six of which were sick leave. Yuu Wakebe, who works at the health ministry, admits that he does 100 hours of overtime a month. “It is a worker’s right to take paid vacations,” Wakebe said. “But sadly workers in Japan have to do a lot of extra work for no money.”
What does Yuu Wakebe say about Japanese employees?
They should be able to take vacations while being paid They want to work overtime to increase their salaries About 22% of Japanese employees work over 49 hours a week About 10% of Japanese employees work less than 35 hours a week