Japanese customers notice average monthly labour hours and overtime drop from 2008

“The monthly average of actual labor hours, including overtime hours, was 144.4 in 2009, down 2.9 percent from 2008. The monthly average wage, including bonuses, received by workers in 2009 was 315,164 yen, down 3.9 percent from the previous year.... Workers' salaries and labor hours recorded their worst percentage drop in 2009 since the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry began compiling such data under the current formula in 1990, the ministry said Tuesday.”




Source: Salaries, labor hours mark record-high percentage fall
The Yomiuri Shimbun
(Feb. 3, 2010)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business/T100202006488.htm