Comments by "Morgan Olfursson" (@morganolfursson2560) on "Japan's 'Premium Friday' Attempts to Stop Death by Overwork (HBO)" video.
-
7
-
3
-
3
-
2
-
2
-
You are actually absolutely right Roland .
Now to answer some of your questions (even though they were not addressed to me ) .
In Japan while you are student at the university, you can be as deviants or outcast as you want, these are the only 4 free years of your life and you are free to spend them however you see fit, as long as you stay within the law, and agrees that once you graduate and start working in a company you put all that deviance and outcastness aside and conform to the norm , meaning, you become the good , servile and obedient Salaryman and Office lady , with the suit, the clean hair cut and the stressed and tired look .
Now if you are an adult and are still deviant or an outcast, people will ignore you, you just cease existing , (unless you have money, lots of it) you won't find a job so you will struggle and eventually you will either have to do something illegal to survive , hoping never to get caught (because the police is vicious and extremely corrupted in japan) or live on the street and maybe die . Having a voice in japan is directly linked to whom you know, and your financial status. If you are poor and have no network or relations , nobody cares about what you have to say, you are an outcast and i already told you what happens to those . There is a very minimum welfare system in japan , for single mothers , and people with disabilities preventing them from working. But no welfare for unemployed people, because there is always a little job you can do in japan , and make a minimum of money . There is not medical assistance, if you are too poor to pay the doc or go to the hospital or the dentist , then you just can't go there , because any medical facility you go to, you first have to fill up a questionnaire , about not only your medical condition , but also about your financial status , (employed / unemployed) address (make sure you're not a homeless) and your insurance coverage (but every insurance in japan is a private one, you need to pay for it every month if you want to be covered ) , so if you can't pay before leaving the doc, hospital or dentist, they will call the police and then you will have to deal with the legal system , which is NOT in your favour , at all . So you might be looking at jail time if you can't pay the fine and the medical bill, or any bills . If you are a foreigner, this is even worse , but at least they understand that you have a voice and an opinion and nobody will shame you for that , that's the only good part about being a Gaijin in japan , other than that, this is only duties duties duties and no rights , except the right to work . You can't vote in japan if you are a foreigner , which is the same in almost every country , except that in other countries you can more or less easily become a citizen. Japan however, is a country of blood right, not soil right , meaning that you are Japanese if you are Japanese by blood and ancestry , not because you were born in the country . many people in Japan are the fourth generation of their family living in japan but they are still foreigners and do not have the Japanese citizenship just a visa which doesn't allow them to vote or have a voice or have any political career or ever have a chance to change this . However if you are the fourth generation of your family born in the US or Europe or anywhere else , but your name is Yamada or Suzuki and you can attest of having japanese ancestry , you can get the Japanese citizenship within a month . That's what blood right over soil right means .
Now regarding the last part of your comment .
What is the ideological root of this self discipline , i could give you the very long version with its confucianist roots, and the shinto roots, cult of the emperor , pre Meiji Japan ultra nationalism , but this would add another 100 lines and i don't want to bore you any further , so i will give you the short version. Kids brainwashing from birth by parents and school that your life is not important and your opinion even less , and any form of selfishness is the most absolute shame you can bring upon yourself and your family , friends and coworkers , while any form of selflessness is as close as you will ever get to the divine .
Hope i didn't bore you . I am not Japanese, i am Icelandic , but i have lived nearly 25 years in Japan, graduated from kyoto university med school with other Japanese students , worked for seven years in the medical field in japan while studying geopolitics and japanese society , then started working for the gaimusho or ministry of foreign affairs and then for the UN .
If you are interested in how Japan fucntions, i couldn't recommend you enough to read this book. A japanese mirror by Ian Buruma , this is probably the best one ever written on the topic .
Have a great day Roland .
2
-
1
-
1
-
Ian H Japanese doesn't need more kids , they need people to live less long . How do you want to have kids when the 120 years old great grand mother , the 98 years old grand mother, the 70 years old mother , are under your roof and you already need two income to support them , but you can't both work because you need someone to stay home to look after them , so usually the husband works 16 hrs a day , to support the wife , the mother the grand mother the great grand mother and himself , there is no way he is going to get kids on top of that . I am telling you, the problem in Japan is that people live too bloody long .
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
yes
First of all MC Hammer this hairdo circa 19983 is ridiculous and you don't interview people looking like that . Second of all, this is not Koroshi this is Karoshi , if you managed to speak the language a little bit , you could at least manage the pronounciation of the simple syllable KA , as in Karate , you don(t say Korate , so why do you keep on pronouncing it Koroshi , KA Over or Excess ROー Work (this is a long syllable) and SHI Death .
And finally this premiuim friday is a complete joke , over 90% of the companies in Japan do not have a premium friday, they just don't believe in it and it is not a duty so legally they can refuse it . And in most of the companies where premium friday is not only practiced but also promoted (asking the employees to actually leave early) , most of the employees prefer to stay , because they know that whatever is left to be done after they leave early, will have to be done during the week end (unpaid) or during long, exhausting extra hours the following week making them go home very late and wake up extra early the following day . The only companies where Premium Friday is very much accepted and practiced are foreign companies in Japan and foreigners liveing there , and trust me , nobody would ever die of Karoshi their to begin with . So this is pure bullshit .
I have lived 25 years in japan , , graduated from Japanese med school Kyodai , Kyoto university , worked in the medical field for 7 years and for the misnitry of foreign affairs and the UN . I am not Japanese but i do know Japan , and sorry but this video was half inaccurate and half embarrassing because of your Roppongi look .
But hey , i am pretty sure you will never suffer from karoshi . My advice to you , learn the language a little more, learn how to pronounce it properly and also Keigo (when you interview people that's the strict minimum and an absolute must in Japan ) .
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
First of all MC Hammer this hairdo circa 19983 is ridiculous and you don't interview people looking like that . Second of all, this is not Koroshi this is Karoshi , if you managed to speak the language a little bit , you could at least manage the pronounciation of the simple syllable KA , as in Karate , you don(t say Korate , so why do you keep on pronouncing it Koroshi , KA Over or Excess ROー Work (this is a long syllable) and SHI Death .
And finally this premiuim friday is a complete joke , over 90% of the companies in Japan do not have a premium friday, they just don't believe in it and it is not a duty so legally they can refuse it . And in most of the companies where premium friday is not only practiced but also promoted (asking the employees to actually leave early) , most of the employees prefer to stay , because they know that whatever is left to be done after they leave early, will have to be done during the week end (unpaid) or during long, exhausting extra hours the following week making them go home very late and wake up extra early the following day . The only companies where Premium Friday is very much accepted and practiced are foreign companies in Japan and foreigners liveing there , and trust me , nobody would ever die of Karoshi their to begin with . So this is pure bullshit .
I have lived 25 years in japan , , graduated from Japanese med school Kyodai , Kyoto university , worked in the medical field for 7 years and for the misnitry of foreign affairs and the UN . I am not Japanese but i do know Japan , and sorry but this video was half inaccurate and half embarrassing because of your Roppongi look .
But hey , i am pretty sure you will never suffer from karoshi . My advice to you , learn the language a little more, learn how to pronounce it properly and also Keigo (when you interview people that's the strict minimum and an absolute must in Japan ) .
1