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Japanese white-collar worker From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Salaryman (サラリーマン, sararīman) is an originally Japanese word for salaried workers. In Japanese popular culture, it is portrayed as a white-collar worker who shows unwavering loyalty and commitment to his employer, prioritizing work over everything else in their life often at the expense of their family. "Salarymen" are expected to work long hours, whether overtime is paid or not. They socialize with colleagues and bosses, including singing karaoke, drinking, and visiting hostess bars. [1]
 | This article needs to be updated. (November 2023) |
"Salarymen" typically enter a company after graduating from college and stay with that corporation for the duration of their career. In conservative Japanese culture, becoming a salaryman is a typical career choice for young men and women, as parents map out their child's education path in order to make sure they can attend a prestigious university which in turn will lead to recruitment by a major company.[2] Those who do not take this career path are regarded as living with a stigma and less prestige. On the other hand, the word salaryman is sometimes used with derogatory connotation for his total dependence on his employer and lack of individuality. Other popular concepts surrounding salarymen include karōshi, or death from overwork.
The word sararīman is often described as a wasei-eigo, a Japanese formation from English loanwords, but it appears instead to be a straight borrowing from the English phrase "salaried man", which predates the Japanese term by nearly a century. The Japanese term saw widespread use by 1930, even before government expansion and militarization drove the growth of white-collar employment.[3] The term does not include all workers who receive a set salary, but only "white-collar workers in the large bureaucracy of a business firm or government office." The term includes those who work for government (e.g., bureaucrats) and major companies (e.g., those listed in Nikkei 225). Workers in the mizu shōbai (nightlife) and entertainment industries (including actors, singers, musicians, artists) are not included even though their income may be salary based. Similarly, doctors, lawyers, politicians, freelancers and corporate executives (the C-suite, board of directors) are also excluded. Engineers and accountants who have their own firm/practice are not included as well.[3]
A typical description of the salaryman is a male white-collar employee who typically earns his salary "based on individual abilities rather than on seniority."[4] Companies typically hire the salarymen straight out of high school, and they are expected to stay with the company until retirement, around the ages of 55 or 60. As a reward for their loyalty, companies rarely fire the salarymen (see below for the Madogiwa Zoku or “the window tribe”) except in special "dire" circumstances.[5]
Once a salaryman reaches age 30, they are typically promoted to their first supervisor role (Kacho), overseeing new hires who are younger than them. Traditional Japanese companies do not allow employees to supervise people who are older than themselves due to "respect". At age 40 they would become a department head (Bacho), and between 40 and 50 they would be promoted to senior management (although these posts are still considered middle management, below the top executives/directors). They retire between the ages of 55 to 65.[6]
Underperforming employees in the over 40 age bracket are sidelined with some of their responsibilities taken away, although they do not formally receive a pay cut nor a demotion (Madogiwa Zoku or “the window tribe”). Haruo Shimada, a professor at Keio University, states that "It's important to treat madogiwa-zoku well, because many young people think about their future in terms of the way these older people are treated", in line with business orientation where employees are expected to show loyalty to their companies and be shown loyalty in return. In other words, no-longer-productive employees were kept around to raise the morale of productive employees, since the young and productive would be able to look forward to the day in which they, too, could sit by the window and collect a salary for doing nothing.[7][8]
Salarymen are known for working long hours, sometimes over eighty hours per week. Often, because of his busy work schedule, the salaryman does not have time to raise a family and his work becomes a lifelong commitment. There is also a belief that the "amount of time spent at the workplace correlates to the perceived efficiency of the employee." As a result of this intense work-driven lifestyle, salarymen may be more likely to suffer from mental or physical health problems, including heart failure, or to commit suicide.[9]
A salaryman's typical outfit consists of a dark suit, a white shirt, and a simple tie in neutral colors like navy, black, or gray. Dressing in such a manner is not only part of professionalism, but also following the cultural emphasis on group harmony where dress uniformity shows everyone belongs to a team, as opposed to standing out which is often seen as potentially disruptive to this harmony. Companies often have specific dress codes, and employees follow these guidelines as part of their role. While companies often take part in the Cool Biz initiative which encourages workers to wear lighter clothing (short-sleeved shirts instead of long ones) during the hot months to reduce air conditioning use, Japanese salarymen still retain a clean and professional look, in contrast to Western business casual which permits khakis or jeans with polo shirts.[10]
In Japan, hotel chains created business hotels to cater to salarymen for work-related travel. Similar to economy and limited service hotels in North America, Japanese business hotels provide small but efficient rooms at a reasonable price, without all the frills and facilities of luxury/international class hotels. Business hotels typically do not have banquet halls, conference rooms, swimming pool nor exercise room, although they may have an onsite restaurant offering breakfast and late-night ramen, while some establishments come with an onsen.[11]
The prevalence of salarymen in Japanese society has given birth to many depictions by both the Japanese and American media. Some films in Japan about salarymen include Mr. Salaryman, Japanese Salaryman NEO (based on the TV series), and a drama series entitled History of a Salaryman. There is a certain expectation among the middle and upper classes for Japanese people to become salarymen. For many young Japanese men and women, accepting anything less than becoming a salaryman and conforming to its ideal is considered a failure, not only of him or her, but also of their parents.[12]
The life of a salaryman revolves around work. The activities that he or she does outside of his or her working hours typically involve his or her coworkers, which lessens the distance between him or her and work. Due to this expectation, there have been a variety of derogatory names given to salarymen: 社畜 (shachiku, literally "corporate livestock" in reference to wage slavery), 会社の犬 (kaisha no inu or "company's dog"), and 企業戦士 (kigyou senshi or "corporate soldier"), to ridicule salarymen.
Changing social circumstances have greatly diversified the life of the salaryman outside of work. Though the importance of social drinking has not declined, its image has changed over time from mass partying during the economic bubble to conservative consumption at home after the collapse of the economy during the 1990s. Mahjong was an immensely popular game among the 1960s generation of salarymen, who brought the game into company circles directly from high school and college groups. The 1970s generation saw a gradual decrease in the number of avid mahjong players, and by the 1980s, it became common not to show any interest at it at all.
Golf became widely popular during the economic bubble, when golf club passes became useful tools for currying favor with corporate executives. Many mid-level salarymen were pressured into taking up golf to participate in golfing events with their superiors. The collapse of the economic bubble led to the closing of many golf courses, and playing golf with executives has become increasingly rare. However, some current salarymen may have golfing experience from their student days, and golf is still acknowledged as an expensive hobby for salarymen.[13]
Extreme pressure on salarymen can lead to death by overwork, or karōshi.[14][15] Salarymen feel intense pressure to fulfill their duty to support their family because of the gendered expectations placed on men. According to a Washington Post article, the Japanese government struggled for years to pass a law limiting to the number of hours one can work, and the issue has been prevalent since the 1970s.[citation needed] In 2014, after 30 years of activism, Japan's parliament (the Japanese Diet) passed a law "promoting countermeasures against karōshi."[15]
However, many Japanese still criticize the government and believe there should be some form of punishment for companies that violate work hour laws. Approximately 2,000 annual applications are filed by the families of salarymen that die of karōshi.[when?] However, the death toll may be much higher, and "as many as 8,000 of the 30,000 annual suicides each year are thought to be work-related," with "as many as 10,000 non-suicide karōshi deaths per year."[14]
Karōshi, literally "overwork death," was first diagnosed as a "circulatory disease brought on by stress" in the late 1970s after the 1973 oil crisis, which took a toll on the post-war reconstruction of Japanese industry.[15] Since then, the number of deaths from overwork has increased, especially at larger and more prestigious companies. In 2002, Kenichi Uchino, a 30-year-old quality-control manager at Toyota, collapsed and died after working over 80 hours unpaid overtime for six months.[16] After this incident, Toyota announced that it would begin monitoring their workers' health and would pay for all of their overtime hours.[15]
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