Not sure how much of that is political rights, and how much of it is just less competitive pressure abroad because of lower population. Easier to get into colleges and find jobs. Might want to ask and confirm.
Or in other words, better quality of life? Yes, you can drive a new beemer, have a house with a pool and and 3 holidays abroad every year in China too -- if you are the one in a hundred to win the job lottery and work 60 hours a week not to get sacked (or if your daddy is a CCP aristocrat).
In the US/Western Europe/Japan at least half the people can affort that upper-middle class living standard, while only working 40 hours.
It's less competitive pressure because everyone can achieve it.
Never thought I would type these words but if you think half the people in any place can manage an upper middle class lifestyle, you need to check both your statistics and your privilege.
If you drop the 3 vacations abroad and the 'new' appellation to the car, then 1/2 of the people in the US can reasonably aspire to the rest of that with hard work and self discipline.
No idea why you think workers in Japan, as the general rule, are working 40 hour weeks when it's famously much more than that. For example[1]:
> Nearly one quarter of Japanese companies require employees to work more than 80 hours of overtime a month, according to a 2016 government survey. Those extra hours are often unpaid.
The article also mentions the lack of holiday or workers taking holiday, which the government tried to force happen via legislation[2]:
> Japanese workers are so reluctant to leave their offices that they took less than half their holiday entitlement in 2013. The government now wants to raise that total to 70 per cent by 2020, according to the Yomiuri newspaper.
> At present, employees are entitled to a minimum of 10 days paid leave annually, with the figure increasing one day for every year that they work to a maximum of 20 days a year.
