It is a generation that faces a situation in which the balance between responsibility and authority is broken. Also, in the past, there used to be a senpai-kohai [older worker, younger worker] system, where more experienced staff mentored their subordinates, but now everyone is equal, so everyone is alone.
Counter-intuitively, higher levels of “individual” as opposed to “group” responsibility is causing depression amongst those in their thirties.
Flat organisational structures and asking everyone to “do more, faster, better and with less” is stressing younger managers.
More than 26 per cent of businesses surveyed last year by the health ministry said they had cases of workers resigning or taking leave of more than one month for mental health reasons. This was up from just 7.6 per cent in a survey conducted three years before. The bulk of those businesses, or 84 per cent of respondents, said problems of mental health affected their business performance negatively.
Japan’s case of the office blues
by Michiyo Nakamoto
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/953f655a-347d-11e0-9ebc-00144feabdc0,Authorised=false.html
A Scary New Form of Depression Is Emerging That Doctors Don’t Know How to Treat …
Two decades of economic stagnation and rising insecurity have unleashed work-based “new-type depression” in Japan.
by Charles Hugh Smith
http://www.alternet.org/economy/scary-new-form-depression-emerging-doctors-dont-know-how-treat-and-its-causes-are-economic
Today I continue to explore the theme that Japan’s two decades of economic stagnation may offer guidelines for what lies ahead “for the rest of us” as the global malaise deepens in the years ahead. I have been a student of Japan for 40 years, having studied the language, history, literature, geography and art/film, in university and thereafter. We have many Japanese friends and have visited a number of times. (I have also been a student of the Chinese and Korean cultures.)
Japan is quite different from the U.S. and Europe, with a homogeneous populace and a culture rooted in Confucian values and social hierarchies. Despite the many differences, including definitions of depression, I think it is self-evident that the rising insecurity and workplace changes in Japan result from long-term economic stagnation.
I suspect “new-type depression” may have some universal aspects, as rising insecurity and new demands in the workplace characterize Western economies as well.
New-type depression–NTD–(also called modern-type) is not a classic depression. It does not respond to anti-depressant medications, and it is triggered by events in the workplace–usually criticism from superiors. Those who exhibit the symptoms–difficulty focusing at work, physical symptoms of stress, etc.–tend to be in their 20s and 30s.
With 26% of companies reporting NTD in their workforces, it is widely viewed as a threat to Corporate Japan.
Outside of work, the person with new-type depression continues their social life as before, even as they find themselves unable to go back to work. In other words, they do not suffer from generalized anxiety or anhedonia (inability to enjoy anything in life).
This leads older Japanese to dismiss the NTDs as lazy or spoiled, because the depression is often triggered by demands at work the young worker cannot meet.
Psychologists in Japan are struggling to understand and define new-type depression. Some feel it is a form of rebellion against a rigid society. Others believe it results from poor communication skills on the part of both the younger workers and their senior supervisors.
Why are poor communication skill suddenly an issue in hierarchical Japan? It turns out that Corporate Japan has adopted Western-style management techniques to cope with declining sales and profitability. Job security is no longer absolute in Corporate Japan, and high-level social skills are now required in the “New Economy.”
This is also the case in America, where routine work that required only following orders has declined in favor of work that demands constant communication with work groups and and interaction with supervisors. This “New Economy” workplace places a premium on high-level verbal, written and social skills of the sort that females generally score higher on than males. (NTD does not appear to be gender-related, as both males and females experience NTD.)
The “New Economy” in Japan and the U.S. places great pressure on those with poor communication skills and who take their work seriously. Criticism or a failure to keep up pushes the anxiety-ridden worker into new-style depression.
According to Japan’s case of the office blues (Financial Times, free registration required), Corporate Japan has also flattened management levels, U.S.-style, diminishing the traditional mentoring relationship between senior supervisors and junior workers.
This relationship evoked certain aspects of the stern and demanding father-figure, the boss who might yell at you but who looked out for you and nurtured you within the corporate hierarchy.