> How trustworthy is that data

Very. This is the OECD.

> Yet we all hear stories of workers in Japan having basically no life outside of work

These anecdotes tend to be decades old. After the labor code changes in 2018; the new generation of Japanese megacorps like SoftBank, Rakuten, Mercari, and LY normalizing Western work culture; and the worker shortage in the 2010s, work hours reduced.

> And when people visit Japan, they report things like everything being spotless, and trash containers and trucks being washed daily

This is done by guest workers brought in from ASEAN, China, and Nepal in exploitative Gulf-style labor programs that are de facto bonded labor and at least back in Vietnam have ties with organized crime.

The Japanese Ministry of Labor literally has a formal strategy around recruiting guestworkers for janatorial and cleaning work [0].

This is also why the new government is cracking down on such kinds of abuses [1].

[0] - https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/11130500/001567071.pdf

[1] - https://www.nippon.com/ja/news/yjj2026052200262/