I am working at a Tokyo office, and the attitude towards work here
sickens me.

WHY do people here think it appropriate to be working past 9 or 10
PM ? I even got the last train home a few nights ago.

I will quit after doing one year, but there are many Japanese staff at
my company who have been working 14 hours days for years, and will do
so until they retire (or maybe die of koroshi). Why do they accept it?
If that was my permanent lot in life, I would suicide.

Also, my company thinks it appropriate to house me 1.5 hours commute
from the office. There are salarymen on my train every morning who are
obviously doing 2+ hour commutes each way - any they accept it? It is
not acceptable.

Japanese people say they don't mind a long commute because they can
catch up on some sleep, or reading etc. Well maybe it would be better
to get an appropriate amount of sleep AT HOME, instead of sprawled out
on a train with your mouth gaping open. I even see people trying to
sleep standing up... maybe if they worked appropriate hours, such
exhaustion would be avoided.

It is beyond my comprehension how people can accept this sleep-commute-
work-sleep-commute-work lifestyle, their only reprieve being the
occasional holiday, where they can get on an organized tour bus and go
to an overcrowded destination at peak holiday time.

Why don't people go insane and rebel against the system??