世論 What Japan Thinks

This recent survey from iShare into overtime turned up quite a lot of data that to me as a westerner seems unbelievable, but as a worker in a Japanese firm I find it not really that unusual.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 26th of February 2010 451 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.1% of the sample were male, 31.7% in their twenties, 32.8% in their thirties, and 35.5% in their forties.

My overtime has actually increased since last year, despite work introducing measures to reduce working hours! The people targeted were those doing 60 hours a month overtime, but as the measures replaced a nominal 18 hours overtime in the monthly salary with an explicit measure, I now do 20 hours to try to make up for the loss in salary. Despite these measures people still work far too long but just lie on their timesheets, so my employer (note, not the union!) is actively trying to get people to go home earlier.

Research results

Q1: Are you currently in employment, including part-time, short-term, etc? (Sample size=451)

	All	Male N=253	Female N=198
Yes (to SQ1)	76.9%	81.4%	71.2%
No	23.1%	18.6%	28.8%

Q1SQ1: Do you do overtime? Answer according to the frequency rather than length. (Sample size=347)

	All	Male N=206	Female N=141
Often (to SQ2)	54.2%	63.6%	40.4%
Occasionally (to SQ2)	33.7%	26.2%	44.7%
Never	12.1%	10.2%	14.9%

Q1SQ2: Compared to last year, how has your number of overtime hours changed? (Sample size=305)

	All	Male N=185	Female N=120
Increased	28.5%	27.6%	30.0%
Not changed	44.6%	42.2%	48.3%
Decreased	26.9%	30.3%	21.7%

Q2: If you were working somewhere that didn’t pay overtime, would you want to be paid? (Sample size=451)

	All	Male N=253	Female N=198
Definitely	74.3%	70.8%	78.8%
If possible	22.0%	24.1%	19.2%
OK if I didn’t get paid	3.8%	5.1%	2.0%

Q3: If you were working somewhere that stopped paying your overtime, would you request payment from your workplace? (Sample size=451)

	All	Male N=253	Female N=198
Definitely	47.0%	42.3%	53.0%
Perhaps	32.2%	33.2%	30.8%
Perhaps not	15.5%	17.4%	13.1%
Definitely not	5.3%	7.1%	3.0%

Q4: Regardless of the length or details of the work, do you think overtime itself is necessary at work? (Sample size=451)

	All	Male N=253	Female N=198
Necessary	62.1%	67.6%	55.1%
Unnecessary	37.9%	32.4%	44.9%