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World

Could Covid finally end the tradition of Japan’s dreaded 'bonenkai' parties?

30 December 2021

6:00 PM

30 December 2021

6:00 PM

John Updike described America as a ‘vast conspiracy to make you happy’. Japan, a wonderful place to live in many ways, at times seems like the opposite; if not a vast conspiracy to make you unhappy, at least anxious, uncomfortable, and exhausted. This is especially true for those legions of salarymen and women sighing inwardly at the dread prospect of the ‘bonenkai’: the obligatory end of year company party.

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