Brilliant pics show notoriously booze-loving Japanese businessmen drunkenly collapsed in the street after a hard day’s work
Workers are often paid a special 'drink allowance' to ensure they have no excuses for not boozing
FOR most British workers a cheeky after-work drink is a guilt-free pleasure but for Japanese businessmen the end-of-the-day session can be a crazy affair.
They are the so-called 'salarymen' who Japanese business customs dictate must NEVER turn down the offer of a drink from their boss or company associate.
He said: "My photographs are a record of the people who have reached their limit and exhausted their strength after the daily grind.
"Everyone has different burdens, but everyone lives at a frantic pace. People drink with friends as a reward for the hard day’s work and face a new day’s work like warriors.
"A lot of people struggle through such work situations.
"I took these pictures with a true feeling of respect for the people in them. I don’t believe the state my subjects are in is shabby in any way.
"I can feel they have experienced hardships and fatigue to end up like this."
Japan's government has recently estimated 6.45 million people in the country suffer from alcohol-related problems - many because of its culture of after work drinks meetings.
The issue was recently tackled in an ad campaign by bar chain Yaocho, who placed duct tape around passed-out drinkers in the street along with the hasthag #homisugi- meaning 'drank too much'.