Day in the Life of an Average Japanese Salaryman in Tokyo

[Music] this is Makoto a 27 year old single seller man living in Tokyo and he's just waking up her work he prefers to skip showers in the morning as well as skipping breakfast at home very common in Japan and also time efficient his house is relatively large for Tokyo but he shares it with his family who run their business from the first floor looks like the rest of the family is still asleep in summer Tokyo becomes unbearably hot so he dresses in cool biz meaning light attire no tie or suit jacket some traditional Japanese companies don't agree though and you'll catch some of these salarymen walking the streets in the video Makoto how long does it take you to get ready so you think are you ready you may leave us [Music] mikoto lives too far from the nearest train station ah cabana to walk every morning so he takes a machete a Japanese slang for mom's bike many people who live far from the station ride their bikes and park them and paid spaces as a city confiscate spikes in undesignated spots so there's this unwritten escalator etiquette in Tokyo stand on the left and walk on the right as you can see market is excited to get to work so no standing for him so a coupon is in the northern part of Tokyo right Nick the Saitama Marcoses office is located in Korakuen which is luckily in the northern part of Tokyo as well as so he only has a 30 minute train ride to work which is half the time for a standard Tokyo commute but he does have to transfer at Midway and take two trains to get to work time to transfer trains [Music] mikoto how was the train ride about Saint in your home or not conducive to my gosh Thomas oh look that's Tokyo Dome that's pretty cool but the trains must be crazy busy on game day Mikoto works for our company called mobile a sim card provider in Japan Mikoto has hired straight out of university and he plans to stay with mobile his entire career another characteristic of a Japanese salary man so he's gonna pay with an IC card commonly used in Japan and convenience trains taxis restaurants and even vending machines all with one touch oh how convenient his office is in the same building as the convenience as the youngest employee in the company is always the first one to arrive at the office it gives him family good opportunity and get some work done [Music] Makoto how many people are in the office when you is ruining the image of the intelligence the first person came in and more these two ladies are interns that Mikoto is helping manage and that's his boss although with the small Koki office you can see that Mikoto sits next to his boss without any barriers open seating style what are you doing now in larger Japanese companies usually an office lady would prepare tea and coffee in the morning but in smaller companies you'll find the youngest person will be tasked with many of the day-to-day administration seems like Michael does happy to do it though it's about to get really busy we're gonna be going to a lot of places but that's kind of like what happens when you work at a small office you kind of have to do everything and Mikoto you come to in turns on the lights makes a car for everyone I don't know it's just like very similar to your country let me know in the comments he's off to his first appointment now how much time do you have until the meeting so Mikoto's official title is marketing advisor which is kind of vague in fact his business card doesn't even have a title on it which will make a bit more sense as a video goes on Mikoto where are you going right now Sherman all I hereby sancocho my shop for the money must get all so funny you give us so Mikoto is visiting a coffee roaster in schema to prepare shipments for the company's subscribers it seems kind of odd for a SIM card company to be in copies of triptans but the business is part of the company's initiative as it donates all the earnings to charity called warm hearts coffee club managing this effort is also part of my kotas job right now as we speak oh wait I think I'm missing it now he's heading to Shibuya from squishy Mount which are on opposite ends of Tokyo another 30 minute train ride so where are you going now Shariati no they missed among I'd already much asorio potato tomato juice a tiny dose if you've been working in Japan long enough like me you'll notice that there's almost an excessive amount of face-to-face meetings in between companies even though many interactions have already done over the phone Japanese feel it's important to meet and talk in person to build strong relationships in fact makoto spends a lot of his day traveling on the train between home office and client visits all save you from the monotony and edit out most of the travelling but pay close attention to the time in between locations that gets eaten up by travel he doesn't have a lot of time for a sit-down lunch so he's gonna pick up some food at the supe or an English supermarket then head back to the office to grind out emails he missed during the meetings [Music] he's unconscious in a minute thank us I don't want to bother him during this lunch so let's go forward explore on this office that's the other barrier we came in on there's a company here so it looks like it's like three rooms are like three companies on this floor and then you have the men's bathroom and then you have the women's bathroom like all videos let's check out what it looks like I don't know do you guys looking at other people's bathrooms or is it just me oh so one toilet on the floor and with the standard Japanese washed it and it looks like they do have this sink area which is pretty centered as well on most floors with like these something's like small business floors I think it's like pretty much required to have like a sink and instead of having one office and everyone shares like this like common space you know what's actually in these boxes are SIM cards like free SIM card service for the rest of your life that's crazy so I think I found something what's this what's this little thing here what's this Mikoto you travel so much can you use taxis instead to get around factionism oh I know the tension a ghost a Makarov pistol I bet it was great Oscar Thomas hey man it's not straight not impossible to get question with the answer yes [Music] so now Makoto and his boss are going at me with Softbank their supplier for SIM cards in more formal Japanese meetings it's normal to take several people from the company in fact I've been in meetings with more than ten people from one company attend nice one of the first Japanese business manners to master is the Macy cocon meaning business card exchange at the first meeting Macy : is a must it would be quite embarrassing to not have a card as you would be viewed as incompetent or a person of no importance there are many rules such as how to hold the card with both hands how to dress herself how to set the card on the table and to not put away the card until after the meeting but that's a video for another day it's also Japanese business etiquette to show your clients at the elevator and to maintain the bow until the door closes [Music] so it's five o'clock now and it's just that kind of quiet I thought this is just finishing up some emails to this time not a lot to do before finishes at 6:00 aside from all the emails that he missed throughout the day so he's just been working away and you would expect the day wouldn't be complete without a visit and the delivery yay finally done just a little past 6:00 time to clock out and call it a day or maybe right are you going straight home we're gonna eat your baby what's gonna do put you there mother see you later before going to the next spot he needs to buy some postage stamps to send out a few documents luckily most convenience stores have a post box inside oh when electrons get closer you'll often see these campaign cars near large stations so Makoto's company also supports an after-school program twice a week he mentors the kids and eats dinner with him not so uncommon for Japanese element to work all these additional hours won't show you that yes what you're the kind of us and now the day is done back at his home station [Music] Oh No he still has work after getting home you want you to come out any second off you made it a question though would you consider to keep quite to give me your money cuz getting else that's a true Japanese salary man spirit finally like most Japanese a bat that night before he goes to sleep I mean who would want to climb in a bed after sweating all day without a bath [Music] all right so that's the end of Marco Thursday what do you guys think you guys like this day in the life series I'm actually gonna have a bunch more of these so definitely hit that subscribe button the bell button if you want to see more of these videos as you can see Mikoto his his chilling has been quite a long day that he's had he'd have actually been to so many places traveling on the train sisters just right there just chilling I think his mom just came home it's just been quite a long day if you guys like this video helped me out and hit that like button if you guys want to see what I'm doing on the daily then definitely check out my Instagram channel and I guess that's it I'll see you guys in the next one

Channel: Paolo fromTOKYO

Views: 2,769,802

Rating: 4.917439 out of 5

Keywords: Paolo, day in the life, day in the life japan, day in the life japan work, day in the life of a salaryman, salaryman, salary man, salaryman life, salaryman lifestyle, japanese salaryman, japan salaryman, japan day in the life, day in the life tokyo, japanese worker, japanese work life, japan work life, japan work lifestyle, japan working hours, tokyo office, average japanese work day, japan, japanese office, working in japan, japanese officer worker, life in japan, tokyo

Id: 6tmjXp_AYg0

Length: 11min 34sec (694 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 05 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Jigsus]

This is not average for Japan at all. He works for the equivalent of a japanese startup. His boss is non-japanese. He walks around outside during the day and he clocks out at exactly 6PM without any unpaid overtime. This is very unconventional. Yes he does go to tutor kids but he freaking clocked out! That's huge in japan.

The average life of a japanese salary man is very different. They go to work completely on the subway. They don't bike because of the risk of sweating. They do not leave the office during the workday. They stay at work until 8PM even if they don't have work usually just sitting around doing nothing but being seen at their desks. It's a race to see who leaves first. After work the boss may demand to go out to drinks or dinner for teambuilding. These outings are mandatory and go until 10PM.

[u/LikeAWombatScorned]

I do envy him being able to walk and bike as part of his normal day. I spend 45 minutes driving to work, sit all day, and drive home. If I want to go anywhere I have to drive. Nothing is within walking distance, and riding a bicycle on these roads is dangerous.

[u/Hahshasz]

What a horrible life. I have to work about 60 hours a week every December and I want to blow my brains out by the time it’s over.

[u/imperator-fabulosa]

This basically looks like my day as an office assistant in the US, except for how polite everyone was.

[u/john_andrew_smith101]

Here's another video that covers a week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po8IPh64rVM

[u/OnixAwesome]

Wow, this was really a wake up call for me. I've been living a routine that's really similar to this guy's as a university student/intern for quite some time now. Complete with getting home and continuing to work until late. No wonder my life is such a mess. I need to work on my work/life balance.

[u/reekawn]

When does he poop?

[u/Viscumin]

That is a crazy day! Thanks for sharing the video, I found it very interesting.

[u/throwbackfinder]

Computer, Load up Salaryman please.

Er give me a print out of Cellphoneman smiling.