世論 What Japan Thinks

goo Ranking recently looked at Japan’s worst corporate customs. For many foreigners in Japanese workplaces, a harder question would be to list Japan’s best corporate customs, however!

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 26th of March 2011 1,070 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-base questionnaire. 53.4% of the sample were female, 10.2% in their teens, 13.1% in their twenties, 24.7% in their thirties, 23.7% in their forties, 13.3% in their fifties, and 15.0% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Although it doesn’t say in the text, the answers seem to mainly reflect women’s situation in the workplace, or perhaps it’s just that they have more complaints, a situation which I can well understand. When my wife was single, she used to have to go out drinking many evenings in the week, and her boss’s choice in pubs were usually Filipino bars…

Extreme heat and cold is another one, and this year will be even worse as many more companies will be following government advice and setting air conditioning to 28 degrees Celcius. Indeed, my place of work asked us to consider 29 degrees or more…

Ranking result

Q: What are Japan’s worst corporate customs? (Sample size=1,070)

Rank		Score
1	The expectation of unpaid overtime	100
2	Difficult to take holidays	74.5
3	Employees don’t proactively take maternity/paternity leave	59.0
4	Compulsory attendance at end of the year and new year parties	58.3
5	Difficult to say no when your boss asks you for a drink	46.9
6	Difficult to return home before the boss	45.0
7	Compulsory attendance on staff breaks	42.5
8	Seniority based on length of service	32.8
9	Extreme heater, cooler settings affecting work productivity	30.0
10	Having to pour the tea	29.5