For many Japanese, one word sums up their entire lives: "busy."
. . . Salaried men and women who log in 12-hour days and then return home just in time to turn around and head back to work again. . . . Housewives who dedicate every single nanosecond to helping their kiddies squirm through the legion of tests in the entrance exam years. . . . Children who never stop bouncing from school to clubs to cram classes and back again like balls in a giant pinball game.
Being busy is such a part of daily existence that to admit to the opposite -- to claim not to be busy -- is almost to commit cultural sacrilege. The average Japanese would never come out with such an admission. Indeed, for many people, the words "I'm busy" seem to be the natural rejoinder to, "Hi, how're you doing?"