On Dec 3, 8:02 am, Jim Breen <jimbr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> John W. wrote:
> > One of my oldest friends in Japan works for a prefectural government
> > office (not in Tokyo). His hobbies are rock climbing and ultimate
> > frisbee, among other thngs. He has ample free time to spend doing what
> > he loves, spends every evening with his family, and proudly leaves
> > home at 5:30 or so every day. He says he has been told that he has to
> > work longer hours but he doesn't. He knows he does his job well,
> > doesn't need the money from overtime, and would rather spend the time
> > with his family. It's a choice, just like anyplace else, despite what
> > the books/old men might tell you.
>
> I heard a story of a newly-married guy who decided he was going to
> buck the system and go home to his family every night at 5:30 or so.
> Eventually his wife begged him to stay at work longer. It turned out
> the neighbours had noticed his early arrivals and kept asking her about
> them. Was everything OK in his work? Perhaps he was ill and had to
> leave early? etc. etc. She became very aware that they were being
> treated as an odd family because of his quite uncharacteristic behaviour.
> It all got too much for her.

Surely that "newly-married guy" wasn't a foreigner though? A gaigin
leaving work and going home at 5:30 would not be considered unusually
odd, and the family would have been treated as an odd family in the
first place.

When I first came to Japan I remember one bloke who joined the company
at the same time as me and was going through the 6 week induction
course. He was a newly married guy with a Masters in Economics (from a
reasonably good Nth Meriken Uni) and fluent English. Naturally after
the induction training the company HR department sent him to Niigata.
He was allocated company accommodation, and requested permission for
his wife to join him. Permission was denied of course, "maybe next
year". He requested permission to move out of company accommodation
into a privately rented apartment so that his wife could join him, and
this was also denied. He promptly resigned. Everyone the resignation
was very odd and petulant.