In 2025, Georgia Hennessy graduated from the University of Birmingham and left London for a small city in Japan to teach English at a high school. The teacher stated she had hoped to enjoy the country's slow pace of life.

"I had anticipated language barriers and cultural differences in cuisine, but I was completely shocked by the vastly different workplace culture here," Georgia Hennessy said.

Gift-giving culture

On her first day of work, Hennessy received numerous packages of cookies from colleagues. She learned this was "omiyage"—the custom of buying collective gifts after taking leave.

A colleague explained that the cookies on the table were from someone who had taken leave to attend a funeral last week. Looking around the 40-person office, the British woman felt pressured imagining that one day she would have to carry dozens of gifts back to the company after every trip. "That made it impossible for me to fully enjoy my personal leisure anymore," Hennessy said.

Saving leave days for illness

Hennessy's employment contract stipulated 20 days of annual leave, lower than the 25 days in the UK. Her manager asked her to save 10 days in case of illness, as the company would apply unpaid leave for employees who exhausted their leave or lacked a medical certificate. Three months later, Hennessy was ill for two weeks, losing half of her paid leave days.

She stated that the school also required teachers to be present during holidays even when there were no students. When she shared this with a male colleague, she learned he had not taken a single day off in the past 6 years, accumulating 120 days of leave.

Pressure to stay late at the office

Throughout the school, teachers worked 12 hours a day, also managing after-school clubs. To integrate, Hennessy lingered in the office even during her free time to avoid leaving at 5 p.m.

After many weeks of continuous work from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., she received praise for "integrating" from a colleague. Hennessy stated this comment made her anxious.

Exactly one year later, Hennessy resigned. She believes the Japanese system operates efficiently in its own way, but it conflicted with the British philosophy of work-life balance. Now living in London, the teacher said she occasionally misses her old job but does not regret her decision to return home.

Georgia Hennessy, who went to Japan to work as a teacher after graduating from university. *Photo: Georgia Hennessy*

Differences in working hours and leave policies often create significant barriers for foreign workers in Japan. In the UK, labor standards limit working hours to a maximum of 48 hours per week, maintain a flat structure between superiors and subordinates, and always encourage frank discussion.

In contrast, Japan maintains a high-pressure workplace environment with "unwritten rules" regarding hierarchy between management and employees. Japanese law caps overtime at 45 hours per month, but many professionals in finance and consulting regularly exceed this. Unpaid overtime is common. Annual leave allowances range from 10 to 20 days depending on seniority, but office workers rarely use all of it due to fear of negative evaluation from superiors.

This environment leads to many consequences. In 2025, Japan recorded 1.086 cases of work-related mental health disorders. The nation has long faced the phenomenon of "karoshi" (death from overwork). For instance, in 2013, journalist Miwa Sado (NHK) died at the age of 31 after working 159 hours of overtime per month. In 2019, another reporter from the same broadcaster also died for similar reasons.

To address the labor shortage problem, the Japanese government plans to relax oversight of overtime regulations. This move raises concerns about a resurgence of "karoshi".

Minh Phuong (Source: Insider, CNA)