Unfortunately, many other nations have become very competitive in English proficiency now. 1980s-2010s was the period to build an English-proficient workforce and enjoy the economic benefits (as my country Singapore did decades ago).
Keep trying to apply for jobs in companies or countries with better working cultures.
Some US companies pay lip service to the idea the company is one big family. I was never under illusion that management viewed me and other workers as nothing more than cogs in the machine.
Early in my career I must have had a “kick me” sign strapped to me. I put up with a lot of nonsense. Working nights and weekends. As I worked in tech, I refused to stay late in the office but I was working remotely from home the whole time. I still remember my infant son wanting to sit in my lap while I was troubleshooting a Sev1 outage.
I was also pressured to do unethical if not illegal things. One time I said no and my boss’ boss and his boss literally screamed at me for a week.
Anyways. That is water under the bridge. Today I work from home. My boss also works from home in a different part of the country. We meet in person maybe three times a year. I refuse to manage anyone; being a manager IMO is trying to glue the executives unhinged view to reality. It is impossible.
Today, I created a role for myself where I am like an internal solutions architect. I create working proofs of concepts with sanitized real data. After I show how it is done, I turn it over to the developers to implement and maintain. I still have to deal with politics and unhinged personalities. As I have some credibility, I get to back out of projects when I had my fill of political operatives. They then complain I am no longer on the project.
Ive basically never worked more than 40 hours in a week, or worked a weekend (beyond rarely answering an email). It hasn't impacted my ability to succeed, and I've earned a high income for a long time. I also get really good results for clients.
So it can be much better elsewhere.
Also, if you have to use English for work, you can use ChatGPT to help you translate to English. One of my employees in the Phillipines has become a lot more effective since she started using chatgpt to help her communications.
I meant real, complex things, like cars, electronics, machinery.
This is the classic HN trope of:
"things I like and think about a lot" = "real and complex things" and "things I don't like and don't think about a lot" = "simple things that anyone can do with a little time and effort"
Kind of like how when anyone here says they can't get "serious work" done on an iPad they always mean development work. And that somehow executives, marketing professionals etc. who work effectively on an iPad aren't doing "serious work."
But it wasn’t my point.
In virtually every country you can find a great tailor to make a perfect pair of jeans. Yet only a handful of them can make cars worth calling “a car”.
It’s pretty silly to consider all types of products equal in their intrinsic value and complexity.
Clothing these daays is almost a commodity.
You are saying that clothing is a commodity and that a perfect pair of jeans is universally available because you don't know what makes a perfect pair of jeans and you see clothing as a commodity.
My original comment was specifically not about commoditized clothing.
> Im an engineer by education. I understand the complexities of building anything (even a ball for ballpen) at scale.
Genuflect when you say that fella lol.
What I believe is that making more money buys more options. Japan's actual GDP per capita is surprisingly low for a country with such a strong and well educated population. Working conditions would probably improve significantly there if that number doubled or tripled overnight, because of the second order effects: A lot of people would be willing, at least now and then, to leave the extra money on the table in exchange for e.g. not working 80 hour weeks. Anyone who tells you the opposite has not thought hard enough about what making more money really means.
Finland's GDP per capita is surprisingly strong by the same token for a country with such aggressive taxation policies, and no "game breaking" natural resources. (Norway has oil and they are absolutely loaded. Sweden doesn't, but they have neoliberalized a lot since the 1970s.) A few factors which really help this: Finnish people have sky high English proficiency, especially in engineering, and aiming from the start at an international or at the very least EU-wide market is the norm here for tech companies. The Finnish market is only 5 million people, and firms really do just make much more money and much better products when markets are large enough for them to specialize.
I suspect Japanese companies might be caught in a strange middle-market-size trap where the ~100 million population is just large enough that few companies truly feel the need to aim internationally, but in practice it is actually a quite small economy in the modern world to have as your only home base.
.. uprising workers are needed here. New thinking towards well-being of employees must be adapted. Without a social overthrow, I think, it's impossible to change such system.
Or, you found an company yourself and do it differently, addressing the very each problems and market yourself, so that everyone is fighting to be with your company and you as the boss.
So you see, it's near to impossible. One can't wish for uprising, as it won't be happening. One can't wish for change of the Japanese society. It won't be happening as long traditional thinking is still state of the art.
May be in 30y when there's a new generation of managers who think like you and are keen to to different.
Good luck my friend from Japan! Greetings from Germany.
In case you really want to know and still didn't Google it:
On Germany/Europe, we have strong laws for employees. That's a big part of the working culture over here, as each of the employees know about and have the chance to exercise his/her rights given by law. For example , the working day is defined as 8h + 30mins of break. If you're about to work longer, then you get better money/compensation for it. There's a strong law for recreational times/vacation, where each one oughta get min. 24d of payed off-time. There are laws saving employees from mobbing, and if it happens, it's easy to sue because of the employees rights. And so on...
So, urge your legislation to pass such laws as a start. With the time, everyone gets accommodated to this and everything will change for the good.
Wish you success.
I just think there are people suffering all over the world. So ... I hope those people can be saved. I also want people around the world to know that there are many people suffering. That's why I made this animation based on my own experience. zoom I want people to know that there are many people in the world who are suffering. I want everyone to see my animation and know what is going on. I know that nothing will change the situation.
Also I don't think your Linke political opinion rants really fit here.