Tokyo and tech through the eyes of a split pea

In America, you’d be sued

So my buddy Brian also works within Sony, and has been keeping a rather detailed diary of his exploits both within the company and in Japan in general. Makes for interesting reading, but here’s one entry that caught my eye (dated 10/1):

Breaking a rule I had set for myself at the beginning, I began cutting my overtime hours. I worked 39 hours of overtime last month whereas I was only allowed to “legally” work 35. The sad part was Arai-san, a kakaricho in my section, was sitting next to me explaining how to trim hours here and there in the computer system. This is the guidance I am given at work. This is what they are turning me into.

I chewed him out about this, as he mentions later on. Unfortunately, this happens quite often; company policy is not to work more than 35 hours of overtime per month without receiving explicit permission a month in advance. If you do work over the limit, your superior gets a slap on the wrist (from either HR or your superior’s boss, I’m not sure) along with a “red dot”. So it’s in your superior’s (and thus your…) best interest to make sure you don’t go over the limit. Luckily I haven’t had to worry about this yet, and supposedly the pay structure will change starting next year so that such situations won’t occur again. However, I wonder if there is an ACLU-type group functioning in Japan, just for future reference…