That's the joke. Working conditions here (Japan) are generally terrible, and engineers (and pretty much everyone else) is sorely undervalued.
Does this generate any conflict at all, or do people just accept it?
I don't have enough experience to speak on it (lived here over 1 year), but my foreign friends tend to try to stay out of JP companies, and smart japanese friends end up working (remotely or moving) w/ western tech companies.