Living on Tokyo Time

Organization and Ideas 

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1.          Butler describes that Japanese are so busy that they work 10 hours a day and even work on days off. They seldom take a vacation of more than four days. Therefore, a straight week is like a luxury for them. Students are no exception in such a fast-paced society in Japan. Their summer vacation is less than a month and they still have to do a lot of assignments.  

2.          Why doesn't this cradle-to-grave, manic scheduling bother them? It is because Japanese grow up with a sense of time as a communal resource and obligation. They follow their culture and faith to build a well-organized society.  

3.          Japanese believe that time belongs to the whole society and their priority is to serve it. To them, free time only exists when obligations have all done. In contrast, Americans believe time belongs to individuals. They own their own time and are reluctant to sacrifice it for work. Therefore, they take it for granted that their free time is none of their boss's or teacher's business.

4.          Butler probably prefers the life style in America because she says that she would not trade a lifetime of free time for all of the invaluable social goods in Japan.

5.          Americans treat time as it belongs to them and thus they know how to save time, spend them, invest time and even kill time. They force themselves to sacrifice their time for work to get money. Therefore, they think their free time is none of their boss's business.