The most common gripe I hear from white-collar employees at Japanese companies is about the fluid meaning of "quitting time." The feeling is that even if a worker has finished their tasks for the day, it is considered bad form to leave the office before their colleagues or supervisors do. There are, of course, no established rules that dictate such conduct, and I hesitate to call it a custom but even after three decades of debate over the question of unnecessary overtime and lost productivity in the Japanese workplace, there is still great hesitancy on the part of employees to go home "on time."

This issue is the premise of the TBS drama series "Watashi, Teiji de Kaerimasu." (“I Will Not Work Overtime, Period!”; Tuesdays, 10 p.m.), which is based on a popular novel. The bluntness of the title suggests it's a comedy. After all, leaving work at 6 p.m. should hardly be considered a rebellious act. So far, the show has used its pseudo-provocative high concept as a means of addressing other workplace issues, such as gender distinctions in job advancement, paid parental leave and problematic hierarchical structures, and, in doing so, passes over the comic potential of its titular idea, that someone who makes a point of leaving the office when they're supposed to is an iconoclast.

The "watashi" of the title is Yui Higashiyama (Yuriko Yoshitaka), an employee of a web design firm who hardly knew her father because of his punishing work schedule, and so has made it clear that she will go home every day at 6 p.m., using her favorite Chinese restaurant's happy hour, which ends at 6:10 p.m., as frivolous justification. Her company, Net Heroes, seems OK with her somewhat defiant stance against convention, and over the course of the first five episodes a philosophy emerges. Higashiyama wants to get married and have kids, and intends to build a career without compromising those goals.