overwork. reporter: i m paula hancocks in seoul. according to recent figures from the oecd, in 2009, south koreans worked an average of 52-hour work week. that s compared to a 34-hour work week in the united states. so you would assume that vacations would be very precious. but not so. according to government figures last year, almost half of all vacation days were simply not taken. 48% of days off were worked through. now, one of the reasons for this could be that it s quite a higher society, frowned upon to actually arrive at work after your boss or leave work before your boss and even if your work is done, it s considered a good idea to stay and be seen to stay so that you can get ahead. and we have this reminder for
the vacation policies in europe and asia. reporter: i m frederick pleitgen in berlin, germany. the germans have about 24 days and add in a couple holidays and you come to about 30 days of paid vacation for every german, every year. by and large, people here do tend to take their holidays. however, as the job market becomes more competitive, some people are leaving some holidays behind. the interesting question is whether or not the german economy is still efficient even when people take a lot of holidays. you can see in the past couple of years that even with the international financial crisis, germany s economy remained robust. i m paula hancocks in seoul. to be considered a workaholic here is almost like a badge of honor.
paid vacation. the reason why, there s this long-standing notion in corporate japan that if you take all of your vacation days, you are lazy. you re considered a better employee if you leave those vacation days on the table. little wonder that there is a legal term here in japan called kiroshi which means death by overwork. i m paula hancocks in seoul. south koreans are one of the hardest working people in the world, to be considered a workaholic here is almost like a badge of honor. according to recent figures from the oecd, in 2009, south koreans worked an average 52-hour workweek. that s compared to a 34-hour workweek in the united states. so you would assume that vacations would be very precious. but not so. according to government figures, last year, almost half of all vacation days were simply not taken. 48% of days off were worked through. now, one of the reasons for this
take a look at this. france mandates its workers get 30 days off every year. germans get more than four weeks! in the states, there is no mandate. now, typically, americans get two or three weeks off a year, yet barely half of us take all of that vacation time. while nearly 90% of french workers take every single day. what does that mean? what do workers do in other industrial countries? we wondered about that. so we ve got reports on two from our paula hancock in seoul and kyung lah in tokyo. let s start in tokyo. reporter: this is the image that the world has of the japanese workers, serious, buttoned up, and a very hard worker. i m kyung lah in tokyo. well, guess what, everybody, that stereotype is true. according to japan s government, the average japanese worker gets 18 paid holidays a year, but half, 50% of those workers, take only eight of those 18 days. that s less than half of their
kuroshi which means death by overwork. i m paula hancocks in seoul. south koreans are one of the hardest working people in the world. to be considered a workaholic here is almost like a badge of honor. according to recent figures from the oecd, in 2 thoup 9 south koreans worked an average 52-hour work week. that s compared to a 34-hour work week in the united states. so you would assume that vacations would be very precious. but not so. according to government figures last year, almost half of all vacation days were simply not taken. 48% of days off were worked through. now one of the reasons for this could be that it is quite a hierarchical society. it is frowned upon to actually arrive at work after your boss or to leave work before your boss, and even if your work is done, it is considered a good idea to stay and be seen to stay so that you can get ahead. for more on vacation time