When I was reading a Japanese business news paper the other day, I found an interesting article about the way Japanese people work. According to the article, there are two different types of business people in Japan. One is real Bari-bari people, and the other is fake Bari-bari people. Let me explain the concept of bari-bari first.
In Japanese language, we use onomatopoeia a lot. For example, Doki-doki is the sound of the heart beat, Waku-waku is excitement, Shiku-shiku is when we cry, Gera-gera is when we laugh very hard and a lot more. Bari-bari describes the situation of "doing something very hard". Therefore, in the news article, Bari-bari people means business people who work extremely hard.
If I look back my experience working in Japan, I've seen both Bari-bari people, real one and fake one. I worked for Automotive industry and that was on of the oldest and busiest industries in Japan, so the majority of people who I worked with were real Bari-bari people. They usually worked until midnight (literary midnight like 12 am. I've worked at the office until 4 am.) Even if I had a business dinner with my customer, I went back to the office after the dinner if I needed.
Now I'm doing an internship in a company located in Santa Clara, CA and I don't see any Bari-bari people like in Japan. People at the company usually go back home before 6 pm and if they work until 8 or 9 pm it is "long hour work." I would say, start ups are regarded as Bari-bari though. However, there is a difference between start ups here and traditional Japanese companies. People at start ups work hard because they have to survive and they have a passion. On the other hand, people at Japanese companies work hard because they have royalty and pride. (I will talk about this topic another time!)
According to Laura Bridgestock, who reported on Trends in International Student Mobility, "Many Asian nations have a reputation for particularly long working hours." "East Asian economies such as Singapore and Hong Kong all come out well avobe the US in average hours worked per year, and in countries such as South Korea and Japan government initiatives have been introduced over the past decade to try and bring working hours down in order to improve employee health and quality of life."
"Life work balance" is one of the well known expressions in Japan nowadays. Many companies try to change the current situation. However, long working hours are often still the norm. I don't blame Bari-bari Japanese because they made what we are today. However, I feel we should focus more on business people's happiness and wellness. That is one of the keys to get back a strong energetic Japan like in the past.
