Japan
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Japan has to have the most exploited working class in the industrialised, hi-tech, world.
In the 1980s, many socialists, having read “The Kilt and the Kimono”, believed Japan would be the country to initiate world socialist revolution. Its anti-militarism and indifference to nationalism seemed to weigh in its favour with many of us.Recently, some of us look to India. However, what Japan would suggest is that technological advance does not imply social awareness, necessarily.
Now Japan is re-arming. Women are joining the military. Civilian regimentation, as nowhere else, mimics militarism. Office workers, called “salary men” are drilled to parade like soldiers. They are so overworked that they can be seen in their suits sleeping by the roadside. On the trains many are so packed like sardines every day that they travel with their feet hoisted off the floor by the crush. Suicide is rampant. Prisoners are made to honour their prisons on “happy” prison open-days.
Friends of mine are so physically and mentally drained through overwork that they suffer severe migrains.
Personal feelings are not to be expressed, not even in families, let alone political dissent. 40% of adult males remain virgins. Marriage is largely a business transaction, and couples are not having sex. They are too tired and loneliness is of epidemic proportions. Custom requires a constant smile on one’s face, no matter the misery inside.
Translations of THE RIGHT TO BE LAZY are sorely needed throughout gung-ho capitalist East Asia, but especially in Japan!
I suggest the book be recommended to any and every Japanese worker socialists may meet.
Not sure how much of the above is based on outdated information. According to this, Japanese workers now work, on average, the same as those in the USA.
I can’t work it out but does this mean that Lafargue’s The Right to be Lazy has been translated into Japanese ? Or is it simply another translation into English?
https://biblio.co.nz/book/right-lazy-japanese-version-translated-paul/d/1501054731
This site has some useful comparative data though I do not know how reliable it is
According to it, average annual working hours are
India 2480
USA 1892
Japan 1903
UK 1866
Germany 1783https://clockify.me/working-hours
The figure for India is particularly interesting. Sunak´s father-in-law, a capitalist, has recently whinged on about Indian workers not working hard enough
“Narayana Murthy says India’s work culture must change: ‘Youngsters should work 70 hours a week’ Narayana Murthy called for more discipline and improvement in work productivity. ‘Our culture has to change to that of highly determined, extremely disciplined and extremely hard-working people,’ he said.”
This is clear proof that time travel does exist and that it is indeed possible for someone from the Victorian era to re-materialise in 21st century.
On the other hand, I am not quite sure what century Elon Musk hails from with his odd assertion that AI will mean there will be no more work to be done but for some strange reason, money will persist and we will all enjoy a “Universal high income”
It seems that some people in Japan have already worked it out:
https://kokumura.medium.com/were-overworked-and-everyone-just-needs-to-lie-down-8265e17daca
The Lafarge book has been translated into Japanese. The first edition came out in 1972 and a new edition (of the same translation) was published by Heibonsha (a large publisher) in 2008. The translator is Shinya Tabuchi (as listed in the link).
And yes (as someone working in Japan), Japanese capitalism sucks. But not sure if it is any worse than the US, where I’m from. I see similar sorts of misery in both places.
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