Japanese Groupism

Groupism of Japanese people is generally regarded as a strength of Japanese.

I don't oppose to this positive view, however, I feel a negative aspect of the groupism should also be considered, as I think that the Japanese groupism sometimes require an individual member of the group for "unreasonable" pliability.

Such individual's sacrifices are often seen at work.  One typical example is overtime work.

As you may know, the Japanese companies' major traditions include life time employment, employee's loyalty to his/her employer, and seniority.  Although all of these are disappearing these days as the way of management in Japanese companies is changing, these traditions are still regarded as major features of Japanese companies, at least in comparison with Western countries companies.

Fundamental notion behind the above traditions is that the company is like family, and each employee is a family member there.  And this familism, or groupism, sometimes forces employees unreasonable commitment, which can be seen in overtime working, for example.

People sometimes remain at their offices after regular working hours even though they don't have any works to do.

Why do they do this silly thing?  Among a few possible reasons is their hesitation to leave the office while their colleagues, i.e. family members, are still working because they are implicitly required to help others when own works get done, or at least they have to show they are with their colleagues still working until their works are finished.

I understand it is difficult to understand this Japanese mentality in such a situation.  As you might feel, they waste their lives and should more respect their private lives.  It sounds true, however, this kind of unreasonable commitment under the groupism does not seem to disappear for a while.
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