http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25689-2305849,00.html

Western values 'are causing mental illness'
 From Leo Lewis in Tokyo

THE rapid spread of Western business practices in Japan has caused
widespread mental illness and is responsible for a deepening demographic
crisis, government officials say.

Statistics indicate that 60 per cent of workers suffer from "high
anxiety" and that 65 per cent of companies report soaring levels of
mental illness.

Meanwhile, the size of the Japanese population is shrinking, and for the
first time the Government has acknowledged that the falling birth rate
is linked to job-related factors. Directors of the Japanese Mental
Health Institute blame the same factors for rising levels of depression
among workers and the country's suicide rate, which remains the highest
among rich nations.

Merit-based pay and promotion are of particular concern because they are
at odds with the traditional system, built on seniority, that has
reigned supreme in corporate Japan. In the harsh new atmosphere of
cut-throat rivalry between workers, the Institute for Population and
Social Security argues, young people do not feel financially stable
enough to start families.

The trend is put down to Japanese companies' attempts to globalise by
adopting working practices more closely in line with US and British
models. Larger numbers of temporary staff, a greater willingness to sack
people and greater pay disparities are the downside.

A spokesman for the Mental Health Institute said that the emphasis on
individual performance was driving Japanese workers - particularly those
in their thirties - to mental turmoil. "People tend to be individualised
under the new working patterns," he said. "When people worked in teams
they were happier."