Indian man in Japan for 11 years shares ‘struggles’ of work culture: ‘Bonus evey 2-3 months, payment for every 15 minutes of overtime’
For many employees, a manager who does not call on weekends, a five-day work week and paid overtime would sound less like a workplace complaint and more like a dream. But for an Indian professional living in Japan, these are precisely the “problems” he jokingly says have made his working life so difficult.Ajay Pandey, an Indian professional who says he has been working in Japan for 11 years, recently shared a sarcastic video about his experience on Instagram. His deadpan “complaints” about hybrid work, protected weekends, overtime pay and bonuses quickly caught the attention of social media users. The joke was obvious: he was not really complaining about poor working conditions. He was highlighting workplace benefits that many employees might wish they had.
‘I have to go to the office only three days a week’
Pandey began by describing Japan’s work culture as “extremely difficult”. His reason? He said he only has to go to the office three days a week and works from home on the other two.He then joked about what happens when the weekend arrives.According to Pandey, there is no weekend overtime, leaving him with an apparently unbearable amount of free time. He said he is “forced” to spend those days camping or going on bike rides. The punchline came when he turned his attention to his manager.Pandey joked that his manager never calls him or thinks about him on weekends. After 11 years, he said, his manager has effectively “friend-zoned” him every weekend. For anyone accustomed to messages arriving after office hours, his complaint was deliberately upside down: the problem was not being contacted too much, but not being contacted at all.
The ‘struggle’ of getting paid for overtime
Pandey saved another of his jokes for overtime. He said getting approval to work extra hours is difficult. But once overtime is approved, he said he is paid for every 15 minutes worked.That detail needs some context. Japan does require employers to pay legally defined overtime at a premium rate; however, there is no blanket national rule saying every employee is universally paid in 15-minute blocks. Japan’s labour ministry says work beyond the statutory eight-hour day or 40-hour week generally attracts a premium of at least 25%, while work beyond 60 hours of overtime in a month attracts a premium of at least 50%. Work on a statutory holiday has a minimum 35% premium.Japan also has legal limits on overtime. The standard ceiling is 45 hours a month and 360 hours a year, with limited exceptions for temporary special circumstances.
Then came the two- or three-month bonus
Pandey also contrasted Japanese bonuses with the familiar Diwali gifts some employees receive in India. He again jokingly said there was no traditional Diwali-style gift waiting for him, not even a box of laddoos or a pen. Instead, he claimed employees could receive a bonus equivalent to two or three months’ salary.Again, this is Pandey describing his own experience, not a standard Japanese employment benefit. Bonuses vary significantly by employer, industry, contract and seniority.
Is Japan really this relaxed?
This is where the viral joke becomes more interesting. Japan has a long-standing reputation for demanding work culture, including long hours and the phenomenon of karoshi, or death linked to overwork. In recent years, however, the country has introduced significant labour reforms aimed at limiting excessive overtime and encouraging a healthier work-life balance.The numbers show that the working environment has been changing. Japan’s average annual hours actually worked stood at 1,617 in 2024 according to OECD data, down considerably from more than 2,000 hours in 1988. Japan’s labour ministry also reported that average monthly total hours worked in establishments with five or more employees fell to 137 hours in 2024.That does not mean every worker in Japan enjoys a three-day office week or peaceful weekends. Pandey’s experience cannot be used as a description of the entire country’s workplace culture. Instead, his video captures one side of a much more complicated shift: Japanese workplaces are trying to move away from the extreme long-hours culture for which the country became internationally known.
Why the video resonated
Perhaps that is why Pandey’s sarcasm worked so well. His “complaints” turned familiar workplace frustrations upside down. No weekend calls became a problem. Working from home became a problem. Getting paid for overtime became a problem. Even receiving a sizeable bonus was presented as something to be “fed up” about.Social media users quickly understood the joke, with several describing him as “suffering from success” and others saying he was living their dream. The important caveat is that this is one Indian professional’s account, not proof that Japan universally offers an easy or employee-friendly working life. But after 11 years in the country, Pandey’s tongue-in-cheek perspective offers an entertaining glimpse into how dramatically workplace expectations can differ and why, for some workers, the most enviable office perk may simply be being left alone when the workday ends.
