Here is wilki article about the work weeks in various contries. 2004 Data http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time South Korea, Poland,Mexico,Czech Rep, Japan were the top 5. Netherlands, Sweden,Norway,France, Germany were the bottom 5.
Sheesh, Monty. I would do the opposite. Japanese students and workers are notorious for a consensus approach to almost everything. The saying "the nail that sticks up will be hammered down" says it well. Americans are hands down far more entrepreneurial and willing to challenge stupid practices. See how many foreign students, researchers and workers try to go to Japan instead of the USA. The USA is innovative. The Japanese are focused on constant process tweaks, actually borrowed from American quality gurus like Deming and Philip Crosby.
Japanese do work hard but a bit too hard though. Something their bodies cannot handle in the long term. Working hard under compulsion takes more toll on mind and muscle than when working with likeness for it and having fun.
Japanese workers are far more productive than their American counter-parts. The percentage of individuals that will become entrepreneurs is so slim that its irrelevant. It's also absurd to claim that the Japanese are not innovative, even if they "tweak" technology. Have you ever been to Tokyo? Do you know how developed their entire country is? Have you ever heard about how advanced some of the robots that they develop are? Think about all the great cars they produce that are efficient and inexpensive. Have you seen how advanced their cell-phones our compared to ours? I went to Japan about five years ago and they had similar technology to what you see in the iPhone today. Silicon Valley wouldn't be where it is without Japan.
Japanese are not as innovative as Americans are. They are good at buying a technology in its infancy i.e not in the market yet or even patented and developing from there on or better yet taking a finished product technology and improving up on it. Germans are also good at improving things and making them more efficient. Chinese are the biggest commie cons out there. They will sell fake drugs to Africa and label them Made in India. Something only Commie mindset would do i.e. no regard for the human life or minimum welfare. STOP BUYING CHINESE!
Agreed. Still requires innovation to improve a product nevertheless. Let's not start about the quality of any Chinese product. Their factory employees work extremely hard but they are all about quantity, not quality. Germany is all about quality.
One last note on innovation, America is the leader in technology because it has access to capital. Think Silicon Valley. Do you guys know how many foreigners work in Silicon Valley. There are so many Indian employees. Not to diminish Gates, Job's or other American entrepreneurs, but it certainly helps when there is a lot of capital to fund your ideas.
I would rather say that it has more to do with the lifestyle and approach to things. US does attract the top of the top brains from all over the world, so it will gain from their sharpness and addictive mindset to their field and work. Other nations, choose not to invest into the minds and talent and let them waste or idle away. Russia, China, India are good examples of very good education systems but bad implementation of accomodating these graduates in right fields and giving them some encouragement towards research and innovation. Culture has a lot lot to do with innovation and quest for new things. Something at which US beats even the western europeans, which btw are also included as western nations.
' STOP BUYING INDIAN, ALSO ....You'd never know if it's chinese or indian' copycatting like a commiee, dude?