For an example similar to yours, I know a “conbini” employee who occasionally has to sell products door to door. This is, of course, off the clock. If the person’s quota isn’t met, then they have to buy the remaining supplies. That’s not to mention the person’s two “part time” 4 hour shifts per day. Of course part time means being declined any benefits of a full time employee, including a decent hourly wage.

As far as overtime goes- most of the people I talk to do not get any compensation for overtime. Instead, if they don’t do enough “service overtime”, then they get warned that their bonus will be lowered. It seems like the people I talk to do, on average, 2 or 3 hours of uncompensated overtime per day. Even on the weekends. I’ve never heard of “daikyuu” outside of government style positions around where I live.

I’ve heard of multiple places that don’t offer any kind of maternity leave. Instead, they lay-off (fire) their employees when the time comes.

Mail-order magazines are passed around for everyday items. Cup Ramen and other food stuff are regularly ordered (and paid for by the employees) to work through dinner time. Bankers come to the office because employees can’t make it to the bank during their business hours (which are, objectively speaking, ridiculous). Likewise, I’ve seen a guy from a garage come in the office asking for an employee’s keys to drive their car to to the garage to do “shaken” (of course the guy came with another man to drive his car back for him).

We shouldn’t forget the “optional” banquets/drinking parties.

I also heard a story of a woman trying to expose her employer’s wrong-doings to the city. She ended up being let go (fired) and that employer goes out of their way to make the employee look bad when the occasion arises.

Maybe I’m talking about some of the extremes. I’m also talking about small-town examples, although it sure seems like a lot of these problems occur in the cities as well. I think it’s also worth mentioning that all that time spent at the office or wherever isn’t necessarily productive; particularly the off-the-clock hours.

All that effort for the economy in the state it’s in? Something is amiss. I really feel for the Japanese workers whose lives are being stolen from them.

Thank you for posting this survey. I hope the original and your translation can help to improve conditions for some people.