Reflection 3

After reading the article, i feel that i have found a major problem within our society. We are getting too materialistic, and have way too much concern about money and physical possessions over anything else, like health or family. I think that this drastic increase in overworking is contributed by mainly two factors, employees working too hard, and employers demanding too much. Both of which caused by materialism, as both try too hard to earn more money.As seen in the article, there is an increasing amount of part-time jobs in Japan, and this directly leads to pressure on full-time employees. Due to competition and lack of security, i think that many of these full-time employees are afraid that their jobs would be taken over by these part-timers. Due to this pressure that is caused by part-timers, there people tend to overwork and push themselves too hard in order to stay in their positions.

Japanese labour ministry official Takashi Amano also says in the article, "In many cases, workers faced many demands while receiving limited support, putting (huge) pressure on them mentally." This shows how demanding the Japanese employers are, and how much pressure they are putting on employees.

Materialism refers to the thinking that physical possessions constitute the greatest good and highest value in life. In short, money and possession is very much everything.Since people are so materialistic and value physical possessions so much, they would definitely put physical possessions over their own health, and compromise their physical well-being for the sake of money. This is seen from how people choose to "push themselves beyond the limit" to protect their jobs, or simply to earn more money, rather than take care of their health. Often, instead of being happy from earning money and gaining physical possessions, these people end up falling sick and even dieing from overworking.

Lastly, to solve this problem, I think measures should be taken to solve the most fundamental issue, that is materialism. More traditional teachings should be imparted to school children and even adults. I personally think that traditional teachings like Confucianism are very meaningful to the heart and soul, as they generally believe in a life where one is happy and fulfilled spiritually, and not just in terms of physical possessions.