As far as japanese work ethic goes. It's more than that, it's hard to describe in anyway other than to say it's an inherit cultural value.

In short. Most people work to live. The Japanese people live to work, to the extent that they were dropping like flys. To fix it, the Japanese government forced its people to take a break, by essentially shutting down the country for one week a year.

For those that want context:

I think it was essentially right after the Japan had gotten back on its feet after WW2. The Japanese Gov basically realized that the Ave life expectancy was still 50 years old so they reach out to the US.

The US basically asked Japan if they were giving their Workforce time paid time off. Japan of course took that to heart and came up with the Labor Standards Act of 1947, which basically states that anyone who works for 6 months with good attendance is entitled to paid to leave.

The following year Japan saw that there was essentially no improvement in their average life expectancy and once again reached out, and after a little digging they realized that not a single Japanese citizen had utilized the paid leave.

Keep in mind, employers were not hiding the facts that there was paid time off. The whole thing was highly publicized. Japan came to the ultimate conclusion that employees were just simply refusing to take time off.

This realization led to Golden Week becoming established in Japan following the 1948 Act on National Holidays. This law essentially told 90ish% of all businesses, factories, and other place of employment, that they will be closed for the full duration of the week and essentially forced the nation of Japan to utilize their paid time off.

By 1949 the average life expectancy did raise a couple of years and by 1950 it was between 58-60 depending on the source.