So much for the "Americans are Lazy" meme

If we stop importing Japanese, who will watch our tentacle porn?

Sweden bucking the trend

But the media tells me we need immigrants because Americans won't work.

Only if this includes our Hispanic work force. That's some working SOB's. Without them, I think this study is either BS or the world is in trouble.

Considering who the source is, I have doubts this is accurate

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Only if this includes our Hispanic work force. That's some working SOB's. Without them, I think this study is either BS or the world is in trouble.

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not just Hispanics

Our 1800 average is only 45 full 40 hour weeks. Any number of workaholic types who put in 50-60 hour weeks and 50 of them per year will drag our average up. That would be just about any small business owner.

I bet we have the largest standard deviation of anybody.

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Average annual hours worked per employed person

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A strange statistic that has a lot to do with how labor and welfare laws handle part-time workers.

I don't think core Japanese work culture has changed a whole lot since then. The changes are more related to the degree that a stifling, ultra-conservative labor market has created a sub-strata of scrub workers to help support the dying core of sarariman.

From one related article on single working mothers in Japan ( LINK):

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Although the practice is receding, many Japanese companies still operate on a system of lifetime employment, in which they hire workers directly out of school, train them, and then keep them on until they retire. Companies expect long hours and total dedication out of their workers, which is perhaps the reason that there’s a word in Japanese for death by overwork.

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Without being able to work long hours, and with gaps in their resumes, single mothers often wind up in part-time and temporary jobs—called irregular work in Japan—which make up an increasingly large part of the Japanese labor market. Between 1992 and 2011, the share of irregular workers in Japan rose to 35 percent from 20 percent of the labor force, according to Kingston. These workers make on average 40 percent of what regular workers make. Around 77 percent of Japan’s irregular workers are women, according to Kingston.

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But Japan is still dying rurally ( LINK):

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Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs says that now, around 15,000 of Japan’s 65,000 or so communities have more than half of their population over the age of 65.

In some rural regions, nature is reclaiming the land. Families are tearing down unused homes, turning the land back into fields. Bear attacks near settlements in Japan’s north are increasing as humans stop pruning back trees and maintaining their land. Wild boars have been ravaging farmland across the island of Honshu. “What will happen in the future, for most places, the only outcome will be total disappearance,” said Peter Matanle, a senior lecturer in Japanese studies at the University of Sheffield, who has extensively studied Japan’s rural decline. Fields and empty lots will replace homes and farmland, and in some places, only graveyards will be left to mark the land where people once lived.

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But there is hope (" Why a Japanese E-Tailer Requires Workers to Speak English"):

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But to expand globally, Rakuten will need to internationalize its internal culture. So in 2011, Rakuten instituted English as the company’s official language, requiring all employees to use it in all conversations and written communications. Last year the company opened a sprawling Tokyo headquarters with amenities to rival a large Silicon Valley tech campus.

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If the Vatican were smart, it would follow suit and switch languages from Latin to English.

Anyway, I'm still scared shitless of the USA turning into something resembling Japan. Our monetary policy since 2009 spells certain disaster, and we are already seeing the effects of declining worker productivity and greater public opinion supporting more restrictive immigration and subsidized corporate health care and pension benefits.

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Sweden bucking the trend

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Dat labor market deregulation tho...

... plus women probably having less babies.

Of course Americans work more. This is nothing new. Other countries talk about how Americans live to work