An awful aspect of being grossly overworked at a Japanese company is
that I didn't even have time to respond to people's insightful
comments in my previous thread.

Now that I finally have one week's holiday (after 6 months solid
work), I can finally catch up on some internet usage.

Anyway... my own country, Australia, is like a foreign country to me
(in terms of work), because I never worked full time there.

I have a question for the Australians here. Is it possible to have a
normal job in Australia? Where you can realistically leave at 5pm
(without being frowned upon)? Of course I am not too obsessive about
leaving time... 5:30/6:00/6:30 on occasion would not be the end of the
world.

I hold on to the dream of returning to Australia, it is the only thing
that gives me hope when I have to work excessive hours (sometimes
until the last train home, the 12:04am).

But I fear that I might just get out of this hell hole, only find that
Australians are actually just as workaholic as Japanese. If that is
the case I might as well just stay at this company.

What are people's views on white collar worling conditions in
Australia.