Striking photos of businessmen sleeping on dirty streets illustrate Japan’s tireless work culture

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• Japan is notorious for its exhaustive work culture, one that has employees spending long hours in the office.
• After a long work day, some workers are known to turn to drinking at local bars to blow off some steam.
• But, after too many drinks, they’ll sometimes miss the last train home and have no other choice than to get some shut-eye on the streets of the city’s center.
• Warsaw-born photographer Pawel Jaszczuk captured the phenomenon of the slumbering “salarymen,” as they’re known in Japan, and compiled the images in a photo series and book titled “High Fashion.”
• The resulting photos show just how vigorous Japanese corporate culture can be.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Jaszczuk, who divides his time and work between Warsaw and Japan, told Business Insider that he was living in Tokyo when he began to notice a unique phenomenon.

In the wee hours of the night, he noticed men dressed in business suits fast asleep on the streets of Tokyo.

“The contrast between well-dressed men and the street got my attention,” Jaszczuk said.

In 2008, he started photographing the sleeping businessmen that he would come across.

Jaszczuk’s photos show some taking to city benches, fences, and subway platforms to get a little shut eye …

… others are shown simply dozing off standing up.

The more and more he shot, the more common of a phenomenon he said it seemed to be.

Jaszczuk said the slumbering businessmen are easy to find for the most part, if you know where to look for them.

He said he knew that perusing nearby train stations and karaoke bars would always prove fruitful.

“After some research, I knew which areas would be the best, because they are not everywhere,” Jaszczuk said.

Tokyo’s Shinjuku and Shimbashi districts, in particular, known for their business, commercial, and entertainment centers, were full of dozing employees, he said.

But he would also occasionally find some one-offs elsewhere.

“That’s why I was moving all the time,” he said.

For more than two years, Jaszczuk said he worked almost every night taking photos of the sleeping workers.

Biking around “did the job perfectly,” he said.

“I was hunting,” he said.

Although he said he would come across many sleeping businessmen …

… he said he didn’t include photographs of everyone he found in his series.

“I am very picky, I was carefully selecting them among many,” Jaszczuk said.

He said that he was looking for style, beauty, and oddity in the slumbering subjects he photographed.

He compiled the images into a book, “High Fashion,” that was published in 2018.

Source: Amazon

Since he was taking photos at night, Jaszczuk said he needed something to light his subjects.

He said he always used a flash, albeit a small one.

Despite the bright flash of light with each shot, he said it didn’t bother his subjects.

“They never woke up, ever,” Jaszczuk said.

“I’m quick, even when there is plenty of time to shoot,” he said.

He said he never had problems of any kind with the sleeping salarymen.

The photographer said that in his photo work, he usually knows what kind of message he wants to convey before embarking on a project.

But with “High Fashion,” it was a bit different.

“The visual part appears first, the message came later,” Jaszczuk said.

After just the first few photos were taken, Jaszczuk said he began to explore that message: a cultural phenomenon that had these businessmen sleeping on the streets in between work days.

In fact, Jaszczuk said what he had begun capturing was a symptom of Japan’s notorious culture of overwork.

Source: Business Insider

The culture of overwork can be so intense in Japan that businessmen, called “salarymen” in Japanese culture, have even died from overworking themselves.

Source: Business Insider

There’s even a name for the phenomenon: karoshi, which translates to “death by overwork.”

Source: Business Insider

A 2016 report revealed that more than 20% of people in a survey of 10,000 Japanese workers said they worked at least 80 hours of overtime a month.

Source: Business Insider

The term “inemuri,” which translates to “sleeping on duty” or “sleeping while present,” describes a cultural phenomenon in Japan that praises napping in public, which implies that an employee has worked him or herself to exhaustion.

Source: The New York Times

Brigitte Steger, a senior lecturer in Japanese studies at Downing College, Cambridge, told The New York Times that inemuri, a thousand-year-old practice in Japan, is more prevalent in white-collar professions.

Source: The New York Times

That’s because employees are more likely to be sedentary and can afford to doze off in meetings and the like.

Source: The New York Times

But even more than that, Jazczuk said workers can sometimes feel an obligation to drink with their coworkers and bosses after work hours.

Source: GaijinPot Blog

After too many drinks, and having missed the last train that would take them home, some workers are left stranded in the city center.

Source: The Guardian

He said when morning comes, he’s never seen them awake from their sleep.

But he’s heard that they simply get up and walk back to the office to start the new day.

As for the men themselves, Jaszczuk said they’re a product of their work culture.

Source: Business Insider

“These men are the victims of modern life in Japan,” Jaszczuk told Business Insider.

Source: Business Insider

He said that they are physically “devastated by the after-effects of working long hours.”

Source: Business Insider

“Don’t judge them too [hastily,]” Jaszczuk said.

While most of the subjects he photographed were fast asleep…

… even if they were slightly awake, Jaszczuk said he could see how worn out they were.

“When their faces happen to reflect consciousness at all, we see someone completely used, overworked, and exhausted,” Jaszczuk said.

The cultural expectation in Japan to devote so much time to work is nothing new.

Source: Business Insider

Determined to rebuild Japan’s economy, the then-prime minister Shigeru Yoshida turned to major corporations to incentivize workers into devoting more time to their work.

Source: Business Insider

The plan clearly worked, since Japan’s economy is now the third largest in the world.

Source: Business Insider

But an unintended side effect was an ailment spurred by the burdensome levels of stress and exhaustion.

Source: Business Insider

Strokes and heart failure became more common for Japanese employees.

Source: Business Insider

Most recently, a 31-year-old journalist named Miwa Sado died of heart failure in July 2013 after reportedly logging 159 hours of overtime in a one-month period.

Source: Business Insider

Her death was determined to be karoshi in October 2017.

Source: Business Insider

When employees’ deaths are classified as karoshi, Japanese corporations are forced to pay a fine.

Source: Business Insider

Sado’s employer only had to pay what amounts to $5,000 USD in fines following her death.

Source: Business Insider

But it’s seen little success.

Source: Business Insider

Working overtime remains a pervasive aspect of corporate culture in Japan.

Source: Business Insider