“It's fair to say that the Japanese are incredibly busy. Working 10-hour days and often coming in on days off, they rarely take a vacation of more than three or four days. A whole week is a hedonistic luxury." The Japanese are undoubtedly incredibly busy working constantly and rarely take a break, I'm sure. My only objection to working so hard is not having time for you. The purpose of work is to have money and enjoy the benefits of your previous hard work. Working incessantly and only having time to eat and sleep seems pointless. Every day you hear about how Americans are lazy and how our work ethic is poor. I do not agree with this statement nor with Lynnika Butler, in her essay “Living on Tokyo Time”. The work ethic is a belief in the moral benefit and importance of work and its inherent ability to strengthen character (dictionary.com). Character is what defines us; it's what we do when we're not working. Our work does not define us, our personality and beliefs do. This is why I think Japanese people shouldn't work as hard as they do. The Japanese have a prosperous culture and many other advantages which were stated in “Living on Tokyo Time”. These were achieved by their ancestors who, indeed, worked hard. However, they had the wisdom to understand that it's not just about work. This is what makes Japanese people have no social life. While I don't agree with Butler, she makes good points. For example, in paragraph two he states, “Watching people like this, with almost no time for themselves, makes an American like me wonder why more of them don't throw themselves in front of subway trains.” Butler, in fact, is not the only one with an opinion on this topic... middle of paper... further, and therefore get more benefits. After thinking carefully, it is obvious that although the Japanese work harder, they have less time to "reap what they sow". Works Cited "Work Ethics". Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 01 December 2011. .Penfield, Elizabeth. Short shots. White Plains, NY: Longman, 2009. Print.Gerena, Casey. “Japanese Work Ethics – International Affairs – a Wikia Wiki.” International Affairs Wiki. Network. December 11, 2011. .Brull, Steven. "A Tale of Two Work Ethics By Many Measures, US Outperforms Japan - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking news, world news and multimedia. 07 February 1992. Web. 12 December. 2011. .