The COVID-19 crisis as a double-edged revealer: Japanese employees' hope for change in corporate warrior culture and the gendered impediments to such change.

This article examines how the COVID-19 pandemic acted as a "double-edged revealer" of Japan's deeply entrenched masculine corporate warrior culture and its impact on work–life balance and flexible working practices. It analyzes public discourse, corporate campaigns such as Cybozu CEO Aono Yoshihisa's "Ganbaruna Nippon" ("Stop fighting to the bitter end, Japan!") initiative, and in-depth interviews with Japanese white-collar employees experiencing remote work for the first time during the pandemic. While the crisis raised hopes for reform in Japan's traditional work culture—characterized by long hours, face-time expectations, and gendered divisions of labor—it also exposed persistent organizational and cultural barriers, including the ideal worker norm rooted in self-sacrifice and "ganbaru" (endurance). The study highlights a perceived divide between "old-fashioned" Japanese-style companies and emerging "new-style" firms, with employees, especially women, expressing cautious optimism tempered by skepticism about the feasibility of lasting change.