Working Week

Where I live, the work week is Mon-Fri.
I read somewhere that in Japan, it's Mon-Sat.
Is that right? Or is the work week still Mon-Fri in Japan?

Thanks much!

With some companies, Mon-Sun!

Wow, thanks for the info. I had no idea!

I don't know where you work but I worked in several European countries and now work in North America and everywhere quite a few people DON'T work Mon-Fri.!!. For example people in restaurants, stores, hotels, hospitals, museums, historical buildings, airports and railway stations, staff on trains, trams, buses and planes, also the trucks and cabs drivers, the police, the customs agents ..the list go on and on. For several years here in North America, I worked 6 on/ 3 off/ 6 on/ 3 off/ 6 on/ 2 off/ 6 on /3 off. then repeated the 35 days cycle. Good thing about it is that some days off were always on weekdays, others days off always on weekends and some days off either way. .

Some offices are open on Saturdays, others aren't, because in Japan, you're not expected to go to church on Sundays nor did God tell you to take a rest the day before.

Kira,

The typical work week is Mon-Fri, although it isn't unheard of to work Saturdays as well. It all depends on your company. And obviously a 7 day work week is rare at best.

Uco,

Offices aren't closed on weekends necessarily because of religious regions. For example, offices in the US are closed on Saturdays not because God said to rest but because Congress did with the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Before that there was no weekend.

Kira, you will find that in most developed countries in the world the work week is Monday to Friday. It's the same here. Some people with office jobs work Saturdays, but that is considered to be "working on the weekend", just like it would be where you are from.

See, I don't work, but my Dad does.
He's a doctor, so he typically works Mon-Fri.
Sometimes he's on call, on Sat. and Sun.
Now that I think about it, a lot of people work weekends here too.

Thanks for the info guys! Very helpful and interesting. Learned a lot from this little thread today.

Yllwsmrf, okay, I was just kidding about the religion.

But I do believe it was the origin of various customs. And up to the 70s, most schools and work places in Japan were opened on Saturdays, with the exception of a few Christian schools. Christian schools had Saturdays off to encourage students to go to church on Sunday.

Perhaps in the 80s, more schools and offices began to have Saturdays off. I feel that this was influenced from the Western customs. As more Japanese organizations started focusing on foreign affairs and trade, they felt it unnecessary to work when your foreign partner is not answering calls. Also, schools decided to start the "yutori-kyoiku" and have Saturdays off so that they can focus on things other than studying, family leisure being one of them. And so, there was more need for parents to be at home on Saturdays. The yutori-kyoiku, of course, ended as a failure without really even having done it.

Yllwsmrf, okay, I was just kidding about the religion.

No worries, I knew it was tongue in cheek. I'd just heard an interesting podcast about the weekend, and wanted to share what I learned.

Incidentally, most of our office will be working next weekend.

I live in Japan. Everyone here tells me that the regular working week is Monday to Friday, but I don't know anyone with such a schedule. Everyone I meet works on the weekends regularly. People here seem to think of how many days do you get off a month rather than a week. Most people I meet have 6 or less days off a month. Where as most jobs in the USA have 8 days off a month.. I don't care what anyone says people work more here.