text: Intermediate 
  Youve spent eight hours in the office. The most important work of the day is done; whatever is left can wait until the morning. This is the point many workers would think about heading for the door.
  But, for millions of Japanese employees, the thought of leaving their desks and being at home in time for dinner is enough to make people accuse them of disloyalty.
  For decades, the government has allowed companies to make sure their workforce is as productive as possible. But, now, it is challenging Japans culture of overwork. The government is considering making it a legal requirement for workers to take at least five days paid holiday a year.
  Japanese employees are currently entitled to an average 18.5 days paid holiday a year  only two fewer than the global average  with a minimum of ten days, as well as 15 one-day national holidays. In reality, very few employees take these days. Most use only nine of their 18.5-day average entitlement, according to the labour ministry. While many British workers see a two-week summer holiday as their right, workers in Japan think that a four-night vacation in Hawaii is complete self-indulgence.
  By the end of the decade, the government hopes that the law will push Japanese employees towards following the example set by British workers, who use an average of 20 days paid annual leave, and those in France, who take an average of 25.
  Japans tough work culture helped turn it into an economic superpower, its employees respected and admired in the rest of the world for their commitment to the company, but they have little time to do anything except work.
  Japans low birth rate and population decline are partly blamed on the lack of time couples have to start families. More employees are falling ill from stress, or worse, succumbing to karoshi, death through overwork.
  Japanese people continue to work hard, despite studies that suggest that longer hours in the office or workshop or on the factory floor do not necessarily make people more productive.
  About 22% of Japanese people work more than 49 hours a week, compared with 16% of US workers and 11% in France and Germany, according to data from the Japanese government. At 35%, South Koreas workaholics work even more.
  Erika Sekiguchi spends 14 hours a day at work and gives up many of her paid holidays. But she is not even an extreme example. The 36-year-old trading company employee used eight of her 20 days of paid vacation in 2014, six of which were sick leave. Nobody else uses their vacation days, Sekiguchi said.
  Yuu Wakebe, a health ministry official overseeing policy on working hours, admits that he does 100 hours of overtime a month. He blames the pressure to match the number of hours your colleagues work. It is a workers right to take paid vacations, Wakebe said. But working in Japan involves quite a lot of volunteer spirit.
  That fear of being ostracized at work is the reason for a rise in stress-related illness, premature death and suicide. According to official data, about 200 people die every year from heart attacks, strokes and other karoshi events because of tough work schedules.
  The prime minister, Shinzo Abe, is not known for taking long vacations. But even he has said that companies ask too much of their employees and that working hours in Japan are too long.