Funny, I've never visited Japan, despite being a third-gen.
It's an eye-popping place to visit.
It works best if you can do it at someone else's expense, and even better if you have some
reason to be there.
I had it good, learned to follow the rules to the extent I cared too, and worked for the big corporation, which can be a dream for many there.
I went to the Bank where my expense cash had been transmitted. The security guard stopped me at the door. An employee was called, I identified myself, 'Ah! Come!"
Into a side room, it looked like the Branch Manager and Assistant Branch manager and a teller. Lots of paperwork I couldn't read with each adding their little personal stamps. Then the cash came out, two counted it, and then 450,000 yen was fanned out on a little tray and presented to me along with some rice cracker snacks.
But, you may be at a disadvantage, depending on your appearance, it would be difficult for them to automatically see you as a foreigner, and adjust their immediate expectations of your behavior, which undoubtedly will be all wrong.
The 160 hour work week only applies to those trying to climb somebody else's ladder. You don't go home until after your boss/supervisor goes home.
Since you probably don't want to meet them at the train station (you didn't stay late enough if you do), you have to wait until the next train, about 30 minutes apart where we were.
The work day officially started at 8:30, so the 8hour folks went home at 5:30, the top level executives usually at 6:00, division managers at 6:30, division assistant managers at 7:00, department mangers at 7:30, department assistant managers at 8:00, supervisors at 8:30, and finally everyone else could start thinking about leaving at 9 or 9:30, on average. There was little to no actual work performed during those extra hours.
As a foreigner, I wasn't
required to follow any traditions, although it was best if I took a turn at Karaoke when asked.
That schedule doesn't apply on Wednesday, as it is the mid-week party night. Everyone leaves at a reasonable time.
At work:
Second and first stops of a typical after-work evening:
Drinking with the North Koreans, and the restaurant owner's younger days as a Tarzan-style sumo:
Why you don't want to be a software engineer in Japan:
What I consider to be my going away party on the soccer field behind the Abiko Plant, as it coincided with the last day of my last trip to Japan. I had three bottles of Jack Daniels jingling in my backpack all day. I don't know how we rated a table right up front, now that I think about it, but we did.