Uncompetitive Japan Inc.
Not being a Japanese person employed in a private Japanese company, it is hard for me to imagine the hardship experienced by the writer of the July 17 Have Your Say letter ("Working employees to death"). I can, however, say with a high degree of confidence that laws mandating time off from work will not be effective, as the author suggests.
As mentioned in previous articles, companies are already required by law to provide paid vacation days, but workers don't use them for a variety of reasons, including the ones cited by the author. The lifetime employment system is to blame for this; for better or worse, employees are trapped.
In general, government policy is a blunt instrument that has a very hard time overcoming the forces of economics (if you don't believe this, just look at how tax laws cause people to change their behavior).