first, let me start this off by saying that i dont work nearly as many hours as most salarymen in japan. furthermore, im healthy, content, and actually like the job im doing. this post is not about me, but rather the hardcore salarymen out there and the japanese social structure that forces them into working more and more hours until their bodies just cant take it anymore.

dying from working too much is a real problem here in japan. seriously. its a common enough occurrence to have a word created just for it: karoshi (過労死), or "death from overwork." the first reported case happened in 1969 when a salaryman in his 20's with no major health problems suddenly died after working more than 40 days in a row. the number of reported karoshi victims per year has generally increased since then to almost two hundred confirmed deaths every year (the most recent official stats i could find: 189 deaths and 208 severely ill in 2007 wikipedia). the most common medical reasons for these deaths are heart attacks and strokes due to stress and fatigue. salarymen are literally working themselves to death.

im not trying to say this is the biggest problem in the world right now, cause in the whole scope of things, its really not. but it is still a tragedy nonetheless.

why are so many japanese people working themselves to death? i think the answer is much more complicated than what i, as a short-term foreigner, can determine. but im pretty sure it has something to do with the incredible number of hours they work. japanese people, on average, work more hours per year than any other industrialized country (international journal of health services). the companies and corporations that make their employees work these hours are only half of the problem though. the other half comes from the values found in japanese society that make salarymen think they should dedicate themselves completely to their job. i see it everyday from my coworkers. many of them work 12-14 hour days, 6 or sometimes even 7 days a week. they have been trained to put health, family, and leisure time second to their job. though most salarymen get away with this unhealthy lifestyle, every year a couple hundred of them are not so fortunate.

as an outsider to the system, i dont have any power to fix this problem. sadly, all i can do is write about it and hope that things eventually get better. ive got my fingers crossed for you, japan.

like pulling on a rubber band, i too have been trying my damnedest to expand my mind. this rubber band has been stretching itself thin by trying new things, living in different countries, meeting interesting people, and learning about the world around it.

like stretching the rubber band out further and further, i feel like ive been continually pulling myself into newer and stranger situations where im forced to expand and adjust. learn and adjust. grow. and you know what? its been fantastic.

but if you stretch a rubber band out too far, you run the risk of snapping it. and i feel like theres a real danger of stretching myself out too far as well. thus begins my journey backwards.

i reached the breaking point almost two months ago, during my first week in tokyo. my head had already made up its mind without telling me. its time i leave and pull back before im stretched too far away from who, where, and what i want to be.

since that moment, ive been saving money and biding time. making plans and looking forward (or is it backwards?). waiting. japan, youve been great to me, but i feel like its time we start seeing other people. its not you its me. its been quite a wild ride, but its just time that this rubber band starts retracting. returning back to its original shape. back to where it belongs.

and pretty soon ill have the means to do it.