Toyota Lifts Ban On Working Late

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

When you took the Tokyo subway between 10 and 11 pm, it used to be full of dozing salarymen who just got back from work. Putting in long hours just was the Japanese way. Some put in an evening shift somewhere else, and came home at 11, sighing “tough day at the office.” Not anymore. Many companies, Toyota one of them, put in an overtime ban. Hubby-san suddenly had to come home early. As a further sign that the crisis is behind us, longer working hours are back.

Toyota has lifted a rule prohibiting office employees from working overtime, says The Nikkei [sub]. Some 20,000 workers in sales, accounting and other administrative jobs can again adhere to the Japanese tradition of working late.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Golden2husky Golden2husky on Sep 25, 2010

    Where I used to work, the upper management would intentionally give tight time lines as an incentive to work extra hard on projects to get them done as quickly as possible. If we missed our time line, we had to stay late or come on weekends to finish. Unpaid, of course. When we came through with the work, upper management would take themselves to a 3 hour lunch. The employees had to wait until Christmas time for a company paid "thank you". Needless to say, I left that job after a few years. There is nothing wrong with overtime, but it should be paid, or at the very least, comp time should be offered. Those who abuse the OT should be fired. I just don't understand the "be grateful you have a job" BS.

  • BMWfan BMWfan on Sep 25, 2010

    Is the guy in the picture actually alive?

  • Stingray Stingray on Sep 25, 2010

    Here the law says overtime pay is 50% over normal rate. And it's limited, no more than 10 hours/week and 100 hours/year. No, the limits aren't enforced strongly, and they were intended to encourage employment. I worked overtime for about 2 years, even weekends, almost all of them. At the second year, the company decided that they were going to pay us supervisors the Saturdays, but not the Sundays nor during week.

  • Joeveto3 Joeveto3 on Sep 26, 2010

    That picture is priceless. Though you can't see her face, the poor woman to the right, clutching her purse, with the Salaryman sprawled out left and right. Classic.

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