Typical Japanese workers are entitled to take 20 days of paid vacation a year.
But they only take 10 days on average.
One reason for this phenomenon is tradition.
They worry about how colleagues or bosses might think of them taking a vacation.
Because it means extra work for their coworkers.
Japanese people regard cooperative work ethics as very important for working.
They dedicate themselves to their companies.
It is considered a virtue.
I didn’t take a paid vacation so much when I was an employee.
It was difficult to take it because I had a very heavy workload at that time.
Then, if I had taken a vacation, my colleagues would have had to work more.
We were working as a team.
We cooperated with each other.
It sounds nice, but working cooperatively has demerits such as a collective sense of responsibility.
It was so stressful for me that I quit the company and started my own business.
But I heard the situation has been gradually getting better.
The Japanese government encourages workers to take more vacations.
I hope that this situation goes well and workers enjoy their lives.
