There is a small island country inEast Asia bordered by sea of Japan to the west and the pacific ocean to theeast .The country’s two thirds terrain is mountainous and less than one eighthof land is suitable for agriculture. It has very few natural resources andimports most of its raw material, but interestingly very rich in human resourcesince its people are intensely hard working and very much dedicated towardstheir nation’s prosperity .This is the country called JAPAN.
Japan is the only country in Asia able to compete with thehighly advanced countries of western Europe and USA. It is the only Asianmember of the G-8 .It is highly developed nation and has completed all thestages of demographic transition which means that it has reached at the highestlevel of development .It is highly industrialized and urbanized with 90 percentof its population living in urban areas. The country’s birth and death ratesare very low and it is the 10th most populous country in the world. Japan’seducation system played a major part in the country’s recovery and rapideconomic growth in the decades following the end of World War II.
The Japanese population is well educated and it is due tocountry’s large pool of highly educated and skilled individuals that waslargely responsible for its post war economic growth. Today it is the thirdlargest national economy in the world in terms of nominal GDP. It has largeindustrial capacity and is home to some of the largest and most technologicallyadvanced producers of motor vehicles, electronics, textiles, machine tools etc.
Some of the famous Japanese brands are Sony, Panasonic,Canon, Honda, Toyota, Mazda. They have a reputation of making high technologyproducts. It is a leading nation in scientific research in the fields ofnatural sciences and engineering. The country ranks 2nd among the mostinnovative countries in the Bloomberg Innovation Index. It leads in fundamentalresearch, has produced 22 Nobellaureates in either physics, chemistry and medicine. Its scientists andengineers have contributed to the advancement of agricultural sciences,electronics, industrial robotics, semiconductors, life sciences and it leads inthe world in robotics production. The Japanese robot-ASIMO is the World’s. Mostadvanced humanoid robot. It was japan which used the latest technology andconverted the rail line between Osaka and Tokyo, covering a distance of 515 kminto a high speed track. This ambitious project was completed in the year1964.The superfast train known as Hikari express bullet train reduced thejourney time to less than 3hrs against 6 and half hrs was a revolution in highspeed trains.
This is the country where atomic bombs were dropped by US onits two cities – Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 resulting into massdestruction. But the people of this country changed its whole scenario due tointense hard work for their nation’s prosperity. The period of overall realeconomic growth from 1960’s to 1980’s has been called the Japanese post warECONOMIC MIRACLE.
Karoshi
Japan is notorious for its intense work culture and there isa situation that people die due to intense work termed as karoshi. It is reallysurprising that Japan is a country where people actually die due to intensework.
KAROSHI is death by overworking and is commonly caused byheart attack and stroke as well as suicide brought by high level of stress fromworking 60 hrs or more per week. Matsuri Takahashi’s case [2016]- the suicideof an overworked young woman brought Japanese work environment into question.She was 24 years when she committed suicide on Christmas day .she was doingexcessive overwork and getting less than 2 hrs of sleep per day before shecommitted suicide. There has been number of cases of Karoshi that is why manyJapanese companies are reducing work hours and providing amenities such assports facilities, gyms. The Japanese government has made it compulsory foremployees to take a minimum of 5 days leave from work in order to reduce thestress level.
Let’s introspect; are we contributing towards our society,are we dedicated towards our work. Our society is generating a pool of educatedyouth who wish only to achieve a high status in society without making acontribution towards it .We are well aware of our work culture and the need ofhour is that we should change our attitude towards our work let’s do ourrespective jobs with passion not with compulsion. Let’s try to bring a changecollectively at each level. Let’s focus on change not on results because if wefocus on results we will never change however by focusing on change we willget the results.
Nargis Bashir is pursuing M Sc in Geography, University ofKashmir.