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.

i live directly above a bar which is directly above a drug store
my apartment is a mere 159 square feet (14.8 m^2)
change trains twice a day at shinjuku station, the busiest train station in the world
on clear days (rare in tokyo) i can see mt fuji from the office windows
miss being around people i can understand in a city i enjoy
i hear every train that passes through the station outside my apartment window
not going home before 8pm is rewarded by free (sometimes sushi) dinner in the office
getting to write code and playing with bank-related gadgets all day is a pleasure
home is where the heart is; mine seems to have never left boston
on the first floor of my office building is a tasty little coffee shop
my business card is in japanese on one side and english on the other
employed by a company employed by a bank
started wearing a jacket to work just last week
old drunk people on the street can be funny no matter what language they slur their words in
on my first week my manager called a meeting to tell us that no one can work only 8 hour days
nearing the end of my journey and excited about the next one

a typical weekday for me (and some weekends as well) goes something like this.

__before work__
i wake up around 6:45-ish, usually after my third alarm goes off. i shower, maybe eat some boring yogurt, do a couple of sit-ups, and then commute to work. it takes about an hour from my door to the office due to 15 mins of walking, 10 mins of waiting for trains, and the rest of the time riding said trains. i usually review japanese flash cards on my way to and from work.

__at work__
when i finally make it through the (multiple) security guards and security card scanners, i get to sit down at my desk around 8:30am - and thats when the real fun starts! gadgets that are currently chilling on my desk right now just waiting to be played with include:

• * an atm card reader
• * a couple of fake atm cards
• * a laptop
• * a high-end tablet
• * a thin client computer

each of these have different security settings and most are even on separate networks. it is my job to play with these devices and to write the code so that they all communicate to each other securely and correctly. most of the code im writing these days is actionscript for front end adobe air applications and java for back end jboss services. personally, the work im doing is really interesting, and professionally, i think the experience here will greatly help me grow as a software developer.

__after work__
despite the fun projects i get to do on the job, the hours are pretty atrocious and make it difficult to have a life outside of work. on an average day, i might leave work around 8:30pm or so. its hard to complain about the 10-12 hour days to any of my coworkers though, because most of them arrive before me and leave after me. after the commute back to my apartment, im usually pretty drained. ill have just enough energy to talk to some friends online, eat something japanese and tasty, and chill a bit before i fall asleep.

this is my version of what its like to be a foreigner (外人) working for a japanese software company. please note that everyone's experience may be different, and ive only just begun working here, so mileage may vary.

i work for a software consulting company in tokyo. all of the developers on my project speak english fluently, but almost everyone else in the office, including the project managers, clients, and staff, do not. though my company appreciates developers who can speak japanese, it is not a requirement to work here.

as expected, the language barrier makes normal software tasks much more interesting. for example, every day we have a daily stand-up meeting where we all pile into one room and discuss the tasks we are working on and identify any problems we have. it usually starts with the project manager talking in japanese about high priority issues. he occasionally gets interjected by bi-lingual interpreters who try their best to translate the important parts of his speech into english for the half of the room who dont understand. this is usually followed by developers asking questions and discussing certain problems theyre working on, which then have to get translated for the japanese speakers to understand. its good practice for my japanese skills, but honestly, technical japanese is way, way over my head. i spend my time during these meetings trying to decipher an unintelligible language and hope that the crucial parts will eventually get translated later for me.

because we're working for a japanese client, all of our requirements documents are written in japanese. most of the older documents have already been translated into english for the developers, but unfortunately, there are always new requirements coming in which have not been translated yet. ive spent countless hours dealing with screenshots, flow diagrams, and spreadsheets that are still written in technical japanese. when google translate doesnt suffice, we have to track down a bi-lingual coworker or schedule time with an interpreter for help.

obviously, since i work in japan, i am expected to use a japanese computer. the operating system and my development tools all are all in japanese, but thats not too big of an issue. most of the time, i can either slowly read the japanese menus or just set the language to english when im in a hurry. but the one problem i didnt expect was using a japanese keyboard. this is kind of what mine looks like:


it looks basically the same from far away, but on closer inspection you can see that (a) there are a couple new keys (check out the ones near the space bar), (b) many of the keys have been changed to do various new things (hitting caps lock turns the keyboard into some kind of possessed japanese demon), and (c) some of the keys have been moved to new locations completely. go ahead and try to find the single or even the double quotes. now how about the caret (this thing ^). where the f did that key go?

of course, there are some frustrations to be dealt with working as a foreigner in most other countries - but working in japan offers some unique benefits too. for example, ive never experienced more respect towards others in the office and downright dedication to the job than i have here in japan. sure, i cant have real conversations with most of my coworkers, but i can still use my time here to learn something from all of them. ill be leaving here soon, but i hope to take with me the memories - both the good and the bad - of my brief professional experience as a software developer in japan.