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I feel like anything the Japanese government does that only disincentivizes employees from overwork, without disincentivizing employers from expecting overwork, will only result in employees finding new and creative ways to overwork to appease their employers.

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I worked in a couple of Japanese tech offices. Contracts and salary included prepaid overtime, to get around the government saying ALL overtime should be paid. But they must have also allowed up to 40 hours per month to be considered "reasonable", so that number was in the contract, and I'd only get overtime if I went over it. Felt like a shitty loophole to agree to, but luckily both companies were super cool and overtime was uncommon, but happened sometimes. So it felt like they'd just put it in as a convenience, like saying "there might be some overtime, but let's not deal with paperwork unless it gets out of hand". And the "40 hours" was paid regardless.

It would definitely be a convenient loophole for companies to continue shitty practices, so I think I just lucked out with the places I worked at.

At the end of the day all that matters is how much one makes for when working full-time. I find it insulting that the employer acts like it is already paying you for a 2 hour per day overtime schedule on a salary that is already bad. To be clear Japanese salaries, in my experience, are bad. Slicing out some of the already low salary and claiming it is there just in case one does work overtime is not ok.

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