Gaman is the capacity to put up with difficulty: pain, discomfort, frustration, unfairness. Children are taught it, and it is treated as a sign of maturity. Foreign media cited it widely after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, when evacuees queued calmly for scarce supplies. Like most cultural virtues, it is real and it is also over-applied as an explanation for everything.
At work, gaman supports qualities employers value: persistence through a hard first posting, willingness to see a difficult project through, tolerance of a demanding boss. The proverb about sitting on a cold stone for three years until it warms expresses the same idea for careers.
The cost is that silence is not the same as satisfaction. An employee practising gaman will often not tell you they are overloaded, unhappy with their manager or thinking of leaving. The pressure builds out of sight, and it can show up as long unpaid overtime, a health crisis, a mental health leave or a resignation letter that arrives with no warning signs. Japan's karoshi problem and its compulsory stress checks, required annually at workplaces with 50 or more employees, are partly responses to this pattern.
What it means for a foreign employer
- Do not read no complaints as no problem. Ask specific questions about workload, hours and the reporting relationship, one-to-one and in Japanese where possible. "Is everything OK?" will get yes.
- Watch the hours, not just the output. A high performer who never complains and is regularly online late is a risk to their health and your retention. Check working time data, not just attendance records.
- Expect resignations to look sudden. By the time a Japanese employee resigns, the decision has usually been made months earlier. Stay interviews and regular career conversations catch it earlier.
- Hire for it, with care. Resilience is valuable in a start-up or a turnaround. But a candidate who has spent years enduring a bad situation may need explicit permission to raise problems in your organisation.
Sources
- Industrial Safety and Health Act, Article 66-10 (stress check), in force December 2015.
- General usage.