Japan: Devoted Dads; The redoubtable salaryman is seeking a more balanced life. Hellish hours at work are out. Family life is in.

Byline: Akiko Kashiwagi

Until recently, Kouji Yamaguchi was the classic Japanese salaryman. Totally devoted to his job as the manager of a home design/construction company in Tokyo, the 45-year-old Yamaguchi worked about 60 hours a week--not counting the hours he spent commuting. During the week, he rarely got home before 10 p.m. And he worked regularly on weekends, including Sundays. Though he had a wife and three children--now ages 10, 8 and 5--the businessman rarely saw them. His job was too important.

But then came a revelation. This past summer, Yamaguchi took his family to a traditional festival at his children's school. There was nothing unusual about the experience--until the businessman approached a few food stalls manned exclusively by dads, who were doing all the cooking and catering to the kids. Yamaguchi says it was an "amazing" scene: Here were salarymen like himself performing quasi-domestic duties--in public--and entertaining kids. And they all seemed to be happy. "The festival scene hit me [hard]," he says now, "and changed my perspective on life entirely."

The stalls were run by a local Father's Club in Yamaguchi's neighborhood--a group of dads who had made a commitment to spend more time with their children and serve their local community. Such clubs are a fast-growing phenomenon in Japan. There are no official figures but some estimate that there are more than 300 in Tokyo alone, and more than 2,000 in Japan with about 10,000 members. One of the newest is Yamaguchi, who is now eager to do fun things with his kids and those of other members--rafting, hiking or attending festivals. "More fathers are becoming aware of their responsibilities to their families and their communities," says Yoko Koyama, director general of the All Japan Father's Club, the umbrella organization. "They feel now they must get involved to help raise their children."

Throughout Japan, increasing numbers of middle-aged businessmen are trying to expand their lives beyond their workplace. Many are focusing on their families and others are seeking ways to do good things for other people--in their communities, in Japan and even in other countries. The number of nonprofit charitable and aid organizations in Japan has skyrocketed over the last several years--partly because of a change in the law that's helped nonprofits operate more like companies, and partly because the Japanese public, including salarymen, is focusing on issues not fully addressed by the government: education, the environment and social welfare.

Others are helping out the government itself. Kazuhisa Norimatsu, a 40-year-old TV commercial producer, quit his job with an ad production company to work on projects for the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a state-run aid agency that provides technical expertise to developing countries. He's made two trips to Africa thus far.

The years of recession helped diminish Japan's slavish devotion to work. "There has been a shift in the mind-set of businessmen," says Akihiko Nishiyama, author of several books on salarymen. "They're less company oriented these days and more concerned with [their own lives]." He estimates that among businessmen in their 40s, 20 percent are still married to work, while another 20 percent are leading "a more balanced" life. And the other 60 percent? Nishiyama says they're stuck in the middle--mindful of the need to adapt to social priorities but struggling to alter their habits.