The Guardian reports that the South Korean government has voted to cut back the ‘inhumanely long’ 68-hour working week:

Employees in one of the most overworked countries in Asia are about to get a break after South Korea passed a bill to reduce the typical work week in an effort to improve quality of life and boost employment.

South Korea’s National Assembly overwhelmingly passed the law which cut the maximum weekly work hours to 52, down from 68. The law comes into force in July and will apply to large companies before being rolled out to smaller businesses.

The thing is, Korea’s productivity is not as high as countries like Germany and the Netherlands, which work far shorter hours– which suggests that those working hours are not well-spent.