looking busy is important in Japanesd culture. Japanese salarymen sit all day at makework jobs that are essentially privatized welfare with lifetime commitment.

Gonna split the difference. What you describe is absolutely a thing, but there's a strong 'no work, no food' tradition in Zen Buddhism that is firmly rooted in the history of subsistence agriculture under moderately difficult weather conditions (only one growing season, tough winters).

This is what you read on the web. Just go to tokyo/japan, do you think all the country was built with privatized welfare jobs? :-)