How do Japanese people spend their leisure hours in recent years?

[Bscorpio]

I've been told that Japanese people or typical salarymen relatively work longer hours than those in other countries. What I'm curious about is how they usually balance between their work and lives.:?

 

[nice gaijin]

who said there was balance?

 

[Mike Cash]

Who said there were leisure hours?

 

[Glenski]

Husbands work long hours.
Wives take care of home matters and children.
Sometimes they don't live in the same houses because businessmen get transferred a lot, but families often prefer to keep kids in one school.

Family trips are usually scheduled around the 3 major holidays of the year (Obon , Golden Week, New Year), where most of the time all they do is travel to the parents' hometowns and see other family members.

http://web-japan.org/factsheet/en/pdf/e23_leisure.pdf
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1037&context=econfacpub
Statistics Bureau Home Page/Survey on Time Use and Leisure Activities
Leisure-time activities | 世論 What Japan Thinks
Statistics Bureau Home Page/Guide to Official Statistics in Japan
Amazon.com: Japanese Family & Culture (Jtb, Japan in Your Pocket, No 17) (9784533020209): Japan Travel Bureau: Books
Some statistics about marriage, employment and family life in Japan
Japanese Families
http://ocha-gaps-gcoe.com/contents/Proceedings13_17Nakagawa.pdf
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/equalsharing/EGM-ESOR-2008-EP4Masako Ishii Kuntz.pdf

 

[Bscorpio]

Who said there were leisure hours?

Seems things are more serious than I expected...☝

---------- Post added at 13:44 ---------- Previous post was at 13:42 ----------

Thank you for your data and information! There are so many things mentioned that related to Japanese families and values on social roles. One thing that shocked me is the sense of worth like 'feminist is a disparaging word here in Japan.' That sounds kind of strange to me probably because I've been recieved an education more westernized. And I think that fighting for rights is the most natural behaviour as a human being regardless of his/her nationality, race, sex...whatever. I thought Japanese are all very open-minded for Japan used to be the second largest economy in the world and it also somewhat influenced by western cultures several decades ago. But now it turns out to be wrong. No offense, but I really feel Japan is a strange country for the most of time. And I often associated with many strange images when think of the word 'Japan'. Anyway, I really enjoy Japanese food and some aspects of its traditional culture. And I will certainly appreciated if you guys would possibly tell me more about this country~~~

 

[Glenski]

What do you want to know that you can't find on the Internet (like those links I found)?

 

[Bscorpio]

What do you want to know that you can't find on the Internet (like those links I found)?

Surely the internet can provide me with almost everything. But I'd like to get some information from native Japanese or those living in Japan in order to be closer to reality. I have to say I'm some kind of perfectionism. I want the things I found to be more objective and less prejudiced. So it's best to communicate with the native. I can't really come up with what I'm eager to know at the moment, just everything going in Japan. Pity I don't have the chance travelling there at present...

 

[Glenski]

Well, after you sort out what questions you have, we'll be here to try answering them.