A91   I During the 1980s, Japan's trad surplus expanded, causing trade friction with the United States and Europe. At that time, one of the criticisms made of Japan was that its people worked too hard. Japanese people were sarcastically criticized for living in cramped housing and being addicted to work. In those days,

Japanese workers toiled long hours. In the manufacturing industries, for example, the average number of hours worked per year was 2,200, a much higher figure than for the United States and

Europe. In response to economic pressures, the government adopted policies to reduce the number of hours worked and introduced the objective of reducing working hours to 1,800 per year. Following these initiatives, statistics show that in the 1990s, working hours did gradually decrease, but the number of hours worked is still the highest of any advanced industrialized country. The correct answer is (a). Incidentally, (b) is the average number of hours worked per annum in the United States and (c) in the United Kingdom, (d) in France, and (e) in Germany.