Mythos Arbeit in Japan: westliche Wahrnehmungen - japanische Realitaeten

In Western societies the 'Japanese model' is regarded as the more successful one. Especially the Japanese worker is seen as a very special and extraordinary type being provided with work ethics to be found not or only seldom at his Western counterparts: Working long, hard, efficiently and highly productive. But is it realy true that work and the 'own' firm is central in the life of the Japanese worker? On the basis of a broad set of data gathered from opinion polls and long lasting time-series beginning in the years after the Second World War we will try to answer these questions. By our comperative empirical analysis we found out that work was and is at any time not the central goal of life or dominant living-sphere. 'Family' for example has become more and more important for the Japanese during the last 20 to 30 years. One can find a growing tendency in Japan to try to find a balance between all areas of life. This seems to be true especially for the younger generation. The reality in the area of work and the attitudes towards work in Japan are different from the common Western perception and evaluation, as it is demonstrated in this paper. Meanwhile the 'Asian crisis' has reached Japan. But I don't think it would therefore be correct to sort out the 'Japanese model', because Japan and the Japanese workers still have reacted to these changes and challenges.