Asians work harder than just about anyone else on Earth, but their societies and economies are being transformed as many nations shift to a five-day working week and citizens discover the weekend. Offices are being abandoned on Saturdays, allowing workers to flock to shopping centres, theme parks and vacation destinations - triggering profound changes which will continue unfolding for decades, economists say.
Even in Japan, where death from overwork became so common that it was given its own name, "karoshi", school and working hours are gradually being confined to Monday to Friday, and the number of public holidays has been increased.
But Japanese workers still put in an impressive 42 hours each week, and they are outdone by the South Koreans and Singaporeans who spend an average 46 hours at the grindstone, according to International Labour Organisation (ILO) figures.
"Workers in developing Asia still work more hours than most of their global counterparts," the ILO said in a recent report, noting that laid-back Australians and New Zealanders toil less than 35 hours a week.
"Working times are still very high, but there is a trend towards declining working hours," the report's author Gyorgy Sziraczki told AFP, welcoming the change which he said allowed for more family time and weekend activities.
"Because the benefits of economic growth are not just higher wages and higher productivity, but also improved quality of life," he said.
After decades spent turning their economies from backwaters into powerhouses, governments, unions and workers themselves are pushing for six-day working weeks to be abandoned so citizens can enjoy the fruits of their success.
Malaysia is one of the most recent converts, excusing its one million civil servants from their Saturday-morning shift since July, in a move the government said would bolster family bonds and promote domestic tourism.
It has been proven right by the sight of packed highways leading out of the capital Kuala Lumpur on public holiday weekends, as workers take advantage of three-day breaks to visit beach and mountain resorts.
But one of the most dramatic transitions has been in South Korea, where the parliament approved a five-day work week in late 2003 under an agreement involving government, labour and management.
South Korea's two umbrella labor groups, with some 1.6 million members known for union militancy, campaigned for the reform which has brought dramatic changes to the national lifestyle.
The leisure and games industry has flourished, auto sales have increased, television broadcasting hours and weekend newspapers have been beefed up, and highways, amusement parks and resort sites are jammed on Saturday and Sunday.
And in India, while much of the country labours under a six-day week, the weekend culture has taken off in the richer IT-dominated cities in the south, particularly Pune and Bangalore.
Newspaper reports said weekend business has ballooned as employees of call centres and tech firms took advantage of the extra downtime to spend their earnings in malls, restaurants and multiplexes.
Regional economist Song Seng Wun from Singapore-based brokerage CIMB GK said the reduction in working hours will have a major impact on Asia's export-focused economies by massively boosting the services sector.
"At this juncture almost all Asian countries are all about exports, selling stuff that they make in factories. From Singapore down to Korea, exports is the key driver of growth," he said.
"What we do hope to see, although it may not be noticeable in the short term, is that in the next 15-20 years the services side of these economies become a more important contributor to growth."
That would transform regional economies into something more like the United States where the domestic services sector dominates, and exports are worth less than 10 percent of GDP, compared to 150 percent in Singapore, he said.
Song said that the drive to create a five-day working week was also aimed at addressing the problem of ageing populations in Asia's richer nations, by making life more family-friendly.
"It is all linked in terms of what the policy planners hope to achieve, not only that families or individuals have more time to spend on themselves or going shopping or travelling," he said.
"Especially in Korea and Singapore in particular which has been trying to push for more family time it is more to essentially get them de-stressed to have a more conducive state of mind to go and make those babies.
"Those countries involved are far enough down the economic growth and
development cycle to be able to afford more leisure time for working families."