A Look at Japan’s Culture of Overwork: An Interview With Allegra Pacheco | Made of Millions Foundation
The U.S. has its own issues with overwork and burnout. In fact, a lot of what we do at Made of Millions revolves around workplace mental health advocacy and progress. How do you think American “hustle culture” compares to what you saw?
This is where I believe American “hustle culture” comes in. People are often forced to do whatever they can to survive in a climate where the odds are stacked against them. If you juxtapose this with the cultural narrative that “anyone can make it” in America, you are left with a smaller group of people that will do almost anything to get ahead in the off-chance that they could join the small percentile that make it.
It is a powerful cultural myth, but one that leads to a lot of struggle, divisiveness and greater income inequality. I also believe this creates a scenario ripe for exploitation.
Conversely, in Japan, especially within the salaryman working culture, the pervasive cultural myth is the sacrifice of the individual for the collective. This is also a powerful but dangerous narrative because it leads people to push beyond their personal boundaries under the guise of the common good. A concrete example of this is the amount of Karoshi (death by overwork).
In short, I don’t think the “hustle culture” is exclusively American. All cultures are susceptible to their cultural myths being used against them for profit.
What reaction are you expecting to the film in the states?
My hope is that the film is a platform for people to think and talk about how they want to work, and most importantly, how they don’t want to work. If there are aspects of the general working culture that they’d like to change, I hope that this film is a catalyst for that.
I am very happy the film is coming out in 2021 because with Covid, we’ve already had to hugely modify the ways we think about work. If this film could push that process further along, it would make me very happy.