How much do the "hard-working" Japanese really work?
In the past, people in other countries sometimes pointed out that the Japanese worked too much. But in recent years the number of working hours has been brought down considerably. According to the statistics for 1997, the average annual working hours were 1,900. How does Japan compare with other countries in this respect? The figure for manufacturing in 1996 show that the average worker in Japan put in a total of 1,993 hours. This was considerably more than in France, where the figure was 1,679 hours. In the United States, the figure for the same year was 1,986 hours. The average number of hours per working day was 7 hours and 41 minutes in Japan.

Nearly 60% of the people working for companies in Japan have two full days off every week. Many other people have every Sunday off, plus one Saturday off every two weeks. Government offices and most businesses are closed for the 15 national holidays Japan has every year. The average yearly days off (including national holidays and regular days off) is 112.5 days. They also give their employees an average of 8 days off in the summer and 4 to 6 days off around New Year's. The average number of additional paid holidays per employee in 1997 was 17.4, but the average number that they actually used was only 9.4 days.