You shouldn't feel that way. Labor protection is much, much stronger in Japan than the US, or many other first-world nations, for that matter. Having said that he's right to point out that the social contract is generally more important, however if you're being taken advantage of the law is on your side.
As for self-employment I can't imagine it's much harder, if for no other reason than health insurance/care is cheap and easy to come by, but I don't have any direct experience there. Seems to be a fair bit of self-employed IT folks in Tokyo though, particularly among non-Japanese.
Labor protection is much, much stronger in Japan than the US, or many other first-world nations, for that matter.
It's not that simple. Although permanent employees can't be fired easily, dispatched workers and temps are a significant (and growing) proportion of the workforce and may be fired at will.
We don't have long vacations like in some European countries, nor do we have "sick days" (lots of national holidays, though).
Some companies put a cap on overtime pay (not on overtime work), some smaller ones don't pay it at all. And so on.
You're right about the law being on the worker's side. Most people won't sue, though.
As for self-employment I can't imagine it's much harder,
I think it's not hard bureaucracy-wise, except for potential visa problems. I wonder how Patrick will deal with that (I once had an offer to work as contractor but had to reject in part because of visa headaches).
Many translators are self-employed. But I don't know anyone working in IT that is self-employed, probably because most Japanese companies don't like to hire individual IT contractors. Or maybe my sample is too small.
I just quit my day job and moved to Japan (Tokyo specifically) and I have to say: the option to buy healthcare is pretty nice. It's priced according to your previous year's tax return, so those who can pay more, do so.
I have also found a very healthy tech community here, although the bridge between the locals and the foreigners is somewhat weak.
Also, new stories on HN are on the US cycle so I'm usually commenting when people are asleep. I feel like the comment fairy.
As for self-employment I can't imagine it's much harder, if for no other reason than health insurance/care is cheap and easy to come by, but I don't have any direct experience there. Seems to be a fair bit of self-employed IT folks in Tokyo though, particularly among non-Japanese.