Suicide Rate Set to Increase?

[Catoneinutica]

There's a baffling article in the Japan Times today regarding changes Keidanren is pushing in abolishing overtime pay:

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fs20060718a3.html

EXCERPT:

Keidanren insists that changes to labor practices that would eliminate overtime, modeled after the "white-collar exemption rule" in the U.S., are needed in order for Japan to "maintain international competitiveness."

Keidanren says workers in Japan should be rewarded for ideas, not hours. Hiroyuki Matsui, director of the organization's Labor Policy Bureau II, says that in white-collar jobs, "working hours and wages should be separated."

"We can't compete with China and South Korea by just working long hours," he said. "For the Japanese economy, which has caught up with that of Europe, to keep its competitive edge (over the rest of Asia), we can't maintain the current labor management system."

END EXCERPT

I'm having trouble penetrating the layers of BS, tatemae, and doublespeak here. "Sabisu zangyo" is the norm in Japan, is it not? Whatever laws that exist mandating overtime pay are observed in the breach. So what does Keidanren want? A simple elimination of existing tatemae laws? They imply that pay should be based on productivity, but what they really seem to be aiming for is even more "sabisu zangyo". When you divide the average salaryman's time spent at his desk by his salary, the hourly rate already works out to be somewhere near that of a Nike sweatshop worker in Vietnam. I guess Keidanren feels like that's too high, and are shooting for Cambodia-level hourly wages.

[Taro Toporific]

Keidanren insists that changes to labor practices that would eliminate overtime... "Sabisu zangyo" is the norm in Japan, is it not?

Most "overtime" in Japan is the result of slacking during the day and then pretending to need to collect overtime pay---the additional reason is that salaryman are so hated by their families they are not wanted at home.
"Sabisu zangyo" (unpaid overtime) is misnomer: it's overtime that should not be paid.

[Neo-Rio]

"Sabisu zangyou" exists basically because of office & japanese business culture. Not going home before the boss does etc. exists, but also because if your company has a hardnosed customer you are working for. Customers are asses in Japan because they are nasty gruff oyaji types and will usually try and screw as much out of you as possible, or overload you with so much work to do in and above what exists on your contract, to the point where the only way to fulfill it is to overwork to get it all done. And the company doesn't complain about this due to fear of said customer threatening to leave and go to another company - of which many exist in Japan.

So to sum up, companies in Japan are too gutless to tell customers when to take a hike. Also, when demanded to by their customers, they sumimasen their way into breaching their own contracts, giving "service" to their customers, usually causing their underlings to overwork. This kind of pressure works because most Japanese people just keel over when threatened or pressured.

[dimwit]

Sabisu zangyou can be basically slack as Taro stated but I have known cases where it has led to suicide. This is especially true in jobs that are normally high pressure such as advertising.