Fascinating article on the work culture in Japan, and how salarymen sacrifice so much of their life for their company. It feels extremely alien to me, working in Norway where work-life balance is the priority of every employer.

There exist companies which don’t require their salarymen to work Saturdays. That is considered almost decadent for salarymen — the more typical schedules are either “2 Saturdays a month off” or “every Sunday off!”

And here people leave work after lunch on fridays…

You might imagine that you heard a supervisor tell a young lady in the office “Hey, you’re 30 and aging out of the marriage market, plus I hear you’re dating someone who is not one of my employees, so you might want to think about moving on soon.”

Your employer as your wingman? I thought that was what the job title was for.