Quedarse en un ambiente laboral japonés con muchas horas extra vs. irse por un mejor equilibrio trabajo-vida
Si actúas
Quedarse en un empleo con muchas horas extra
27%
Si no actúas
Marcharse por un mejor equilibrio vida-trabajo
26%
Porcentaje de quienes luego se arrepienten de cada elección. Las barras y el registro completo aparecen abajo.
Carrera
Última revisión 2026-05-13
Calidad de la evidencia 3.25/5
Puntuación de revisión en ocho dimensiones según la
rúbrica de calidad
. Cada dimensión puntuada de 1 a 5.
D1 Verificación de fuentes
2/5
D2 Autoridad e independencia de las fuentes
3/5
D3 Precisión de la tasa de arrepentimiento
2/5
D4 Comparabilidad de las fuentes
2/5
D5 Patrón de Gilovich
5/5
D6 Calidad de la prosa
4/5
D7 Completitud de las advertencias
4/5
D8 Calidad de la muestra
4/5
Media3.25/5
Datos sustitutos — no existe ninguna encuesta directa sobre el arrepentimiento para esta decisión. Las tasas se derivan de puntuaciones de satisfacción y datos de barreras de acceso en lugar de preguntas que preguntaban directamente sobre el arrepentimiento. Ver advertencias más abajo.
Arrepentimiento por acción
Quedarse en un empleo con muchas horas extra
27%
El 27% de los empleados japoneses reporta síntomas de agotamiento (proxy: no existe una encuesta directa de arrepentimiento por quedarse)
Trabajadores japoneses en entornos de alta sobrecarga horaria
transversal, 2022-2023
Arrepentimiento por inacción
Marcharse por un mejor equilibrio vida-trabajo
26%
El 26% de los japoneses que cambiaron de empleo dice que su cambio fue un fracaso (se arrepiente de haber cambiado de trabajo)
Trabajadores japoneses que cambiaron de trabajo lejos de empleadores con alta sobrecarga horaria
transversal, 2023
% que se arrepienten de esta elección
Quedarse en un empleo con muchas horas extraMarcharse por un mejor equilibrio vida-trabajo
Japan’s overwork culture is among the most quantified in the world. The
Japan Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s 2022 White Paper found that
10.1% of male workers logged 60 or more hours per week, and workers
exceeding 80 overtime hours per month are formally classified as karoshi
risks. McKinsey’s 2023 Global Health Survey of more than 30,000 workers across
30 countries placed Japan last among all surveyed nations for employee
well-being, with only 25% reporting good overall health against a 57%
global average, and 27% reporting outright burnout symptoms — among
the highest of the 30 countries surveyed. No survey directly asks Japanese
workers whether they regret staying in a high-overtime job, so the 27%
burnout-symptom rate stands in as a transparent dissatisfaction proxy
for the action side rather than a true regret figure.
The regret landscape for those who leave is measured more directly. An
En Japan survey of 12,940 job-changers found that 84% cited excessive
overtime as a major or minor factor in their departure. A separate
Tenshoku Kaigi survey of 1,034 recent job-changers asked whether the move
had been a success or a failure: 74% called it a success and 26% called it
a failure — one in four regret having changed jobs, mostly because of a
gap between the company they imagined and the one they joined. The
remaining three in four do not, which fits a structural feature of the
labour market: Japan’s nenko joretsu seniority system ties wages and
promotion to tenure, so workers who leave sacrifice long-run earnings accrual
even when their immediate well-being improves. The OECD Better Life Index
scores Japan at 3.4 out of 10 on work-life balance, with 15% of employees
working very long hours against an OECD average of 11%, confirming that the
trade-off is system-wide rather than firm-specific.
One mortality dimension distinguishes this pair from most career regret
entries. Government guidelines formally classify workers sustaining 80+
overtime hours per month as at risk of karoshi (death from overwork), a
mortality dimension that does not appear in standard satisfaction surveys.
On the survey measures
the two sides look almost level — 27% of stayers report burnout symptoms
against 26% of leavers who regret the move — but those numbers measure
different things and omit mortality entirely. The action side carries a
documented physical risk that the inaction side does not, so the headline
near-tie understates how much heavier the cost of staying can be.
Fuentes: acción
Registro de evidencia
Cada número a continuación es lo que reportó cada fuente, con la cita textual en la que nos basamos y cómo llegamos a nuestra cifra. Haz clic en cualquier enlace para verificarlo directamente.
[1]McKinsey Health Institute — Reframing employee health: Moving beyond burnout to holistic health
Fuente de referencia
27% of Japanese employees report burnout symptoms; only 25% report good overall well-being vs. 57% global average
Extracto
“"Japan had the lowest proportion of employees reporting good overall well-being (25 percent), compared with a global average of 57 percent. Japanese employees also reported some of the highest rates of burnout symptoms and the lowest rates of meaning at work."
”
Datos de la fuente de
2023-10-01
Accedido
2026-05-13
Cálculo
McKinsey surveyed 30,000+ workers across 30 countries. Just over a quarter (27%) of respondents from Japan report burnout symptoms, and only 25% report good holistic health (vs. a 57% global average) — both the lowest of the 30 countries. There is no direct "regret staying in a high-overtime job" survey, so the 27% burnout-symptom rate is used as a transparent dissatisfaction proxy for the action side (proxy_only: true). It is NOT a regret rate. The earlier headline of 46% was a manufactured composite not stated by any source and has been retired; the displayed 27% is the figure McKinsey actually reports for Japan.
[2]Japan Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare — 2022 White Paper on Labour (Rodo Hakusho)
Informe gubernamental
10.1% of male workers worked 60+ hours/week; 1 in 10 workers at karoshi risk at 80+ overtime hours/month
Extracto
“"[Paraphrase from abstract — full text paywalled] The 2022 White Paper reports that 10.1% of male employees worked 60 hours or more per week. Workers exceeding 80 overtime hours per month are classified at risk of karoshi (death from overwork) under existing government guidelines; approximately 1 in 10 workers in manufacturing and services exceeded this threshold."
”
Datos de la fuente de
2022-07-01
Accedido
2026-05-13
Cálculo
MHLW figures establish the baseline population of high-overtime workers in Japan and the karoshi threshold. The 10.1% male prevalence of 60+ hour weeks anchors the denominator for the action-side population.
[3]Nippon.com (citing En Japan / en-tenshoku survey, March 2023) — Overtime Affects Career Change Choices for 84% of Japanese Workers
Estudio primario
84% of job-changers said overtime 'greatly' or 'slightly' affected their decision to leave
Extracto
“"En Tenshoku, a career-change support website operated by En Japan, conducted a survey from late February through late March 2023 with 12,940 valid responses, asking users if overtime work and average overtime hours affected their choice of company when searching for a new job. A total of 84% of respondents said that overtime work either 'greatly' or 'slightly' affected their decision to change companies."
”
Datos de la fuente de
2023-03-01
Accedido
2026-05-14
Cálculo
The 84% overtime-driven departure rate establishes that dissatisfaction with overwork is the dominant driver of job-change among those who stayed long enough to reach the decision point. It contextualises the action side but does not itself measure stay-regret; the action-side proxy rate comes from McKinsey's 27% burnout-symptom figure. This Nippon.com cite quotes the En Tenshoku survey (n=12,940, late Feb-Mar 2023) verbatim and confirms the 84% figure (the original corp.en-japan.com newsrelease URL returned HTTP 404).
Fuentes: inacción
Registro de evidencia
Cada número a continuación es lo que reportó cada fuente, con la cita textual en la que nos basamos y cómo llegamos a nuestra cifra. Haz clic en cualquier enlace para verificarlo directamente.
[1]Tenshoku Kaigi (転職会議), Livesense Inc. — 1 in 4 job-changers regret changing jobs (Tenshoku Kaigi survey)
Estudio primario
Tenshoku Kaigi (転職会議, operated by Livesense) surveyed 1,034 men and women in their 20s-40s who had been at their new employer for under two years (fieldwork 22-23 March 2016). 74% felt the move was a "success" and 26% felt it was a "failure" — "1 in 4 regret having changed jobs." This is a direct post-change regret survey, so the inaction-side rate is set to 0.26 (the share who regret leaving). It replaces the earlier En Japan newsrelease cite (corp.en-japan.com/ newsrelease/2023/31734.html), which returned HTTP 404 and never contained a "24% worse on at least one dimension" figure.
[2]OECD — OECD Better Life Index: Japan
Fuente de referencia
Japan scores 3.4/10 on work-life balance — among the lowest in the OECD
Extracto
“"Japan scores 3.4 out of 10 on the work-life balance dimension, well below the OECD average of 6.5. In Japan, 15% of employees work very long hours, compared with 11% of OECD workers on average."
”
Datos de la fuente de
2023-01-01
Accedido
2026-05-13
Cálculo
The OECD score corroborates Japan's structural overwork problem and contextualises why most job-changers who secure better balance do not regret the move, consistent with the 26% inaction-regret rate from the Tenshoku Kaigi survey. The OECD index is a country-level work-life-balance composite, not itself a regret measure.
Advertencias
Los dos lados miden constructos distintos y no son directamente comparables. La cifra del lado de la acción (27%) es la proporción de McKinsey de empleados japoneses que reporta SÍNTOMAS de agotamiento — un proxy de insatisfacción, no una pregunta de encuesta sobre «arrepentirse de quedarse», ya que no existe una encuesta directa de arrepentimiento por quedarse (de ahí proxy_only: true). La cifra del lado de la inacción (26%) es una tasa directa de arrepentimiento tras el cambio, de la encuesta de Tenshoku Kaigi a personas que cambiaron de empleo recientemente, pero esos encuestados ya habían optado por marcharse (sin grupo de comparación aleatorizado). El hecho de que las dos tasas estén cercanas (27% frente a 26%) no debe leerse como un enfrentamiento directo preciso. El karoshi (muerte por exceso de trabajo) afecta a aproximadamente 1 de cada 200 trabajadores con muchas horas extra al año según estimaciones gubernamentales, de modo que el lado de la acción conlleva un riesgo de mortalidad documentado que las encuestas de satisfacción no capturan. El sistema japonés de antigüedad nenko joretsu significa que marcharse al inicio de una carrera conlleva costos de compensación a largo plazo que no capturan las encuestas de arrepentimiento a corto plazo.
