Japanese workers devoting themselves to working massively long hours for their employers might be becoming a thing of the past.
Nearly half of newly employed people said they would leave the office when their work was done even if their superiors or colleagues were working overtime, according to a survey released Monday.
In the survey conducted jointly by the Japan Productivity Center and the Junior Executive Council of Japan on 1,882 workers participating in training sessions in March and April, 48.7 percent of participants responded positively to the notion of leaving the office when their work was done, up 9.9 percent from a year before.
According to the survey, 42.6 percent — a record high percentage — of the respondents also said they work in order to lead happy lives, while the ratio of people who said they work to test their abilities continued to decline, marking a record low of 10.9 percent. Those who work to contribute to society dropped to 9.2 percent.