Japanese economy seems to operate in a peculiar way.

MayCaesar

Something that many people do not realize about Japan when glorifying its famous work ethic is how much importance is given there for showing up versus actually working (to be fair, this is observed in all Asian cultures, including the Chinese and the Korean cultures). I went to Japan a few times when I was doing research in a Japan-based collaboration, and it was not uncommon there to see people showing up at the office at 8 am and leaving at 8 or 9 pm - most of the time sleeping, chatting or browsing the Internet. Many other observers second my experience. Japanese spend a lot of time at work and at post-work gatherings, but do not accomplish nearly as much as you would think. It can be observed in the Japanese GDP per capita (which is a much better metric of economical performance than the raw GDP) which is fairly lousy when compared to the leading developing countries: currently it is estimated at ~$40k per year, versus, say, the $70k per year that the US boasts. Japanese work some of the longest hours in the entire world, yet the performance of their economy absolutely does not reflect that.

It is true that there are companies in Japan that set very high work culture standards for their workers, and there are certain professions (chefs and doctors come to mind) which are treated as an art in general - however, this is absolutely not a universal trend in the economy. Japanese programmers, for instance, are infamously behind the rest of the world, and a lot of software even in the leading Japanese companies has not been updated much since the 90-s. Japanese web developers are stuck in the early 90-s as well, and most of the Japanese websites are horrific, looking like this:

DHDSB

I agree with your point. This is felt as a modern twist on the hierarchy, which undertakes the distribution of resources according to ability and competition, and makes society static. The only reason this class system persists is that class does not lead to disparities in economic rewards. From this, the elite secures power and honor stably, and the people get a comfortable life without competition. I think Korea is between the US and Japan, but recently Korea has been trying to imitate the US more. @MayCaesar