The Chaser Report - Sleep Your Way to the Top

Episode Date: November 9, 2025

Charles and Dom explore some of Japan’s greatest work-culture innovations that have already adopted by ambitious members of the federal parliament: Inemuri and Hirune (napping while at work). Plus, an update on their latest “anti-social social club” plans.Order the 2025 CHASER ANNUAL: https://chasershop.com/products/the-chaser-and-the-shovel-annual-2025-preorderListen AD FREE: https://thechaserreport.supercast.com/ Follow us on Instagram: @chaserwarSpam Dom's socials: @dom_knightSend Charles voicemails: @charlesfirthEmail us: [e-mail] CEO’s Super-yacht upgrade Fund: https://chaser.com.au/support/ Send complaints to: [e-mail] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report is recorded on Gatigal Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to The Chaser Report with Dom and Charles. Now, Charles, we've been a little less regular than usual of weight. I think it's just been a degree of exhaustion, really. You've been busy, you've just come back from overseas. We haven't quite gotten back into swing of things. So apologies for our tardiness.

We did do a weekend episode, though, for the paying. And that was actually quite newsy. Yeah, it's nice. Yeah, people should subscribe and actually pay for this thing if they want it. But we should probably talk about work ethic. Oh, yes, work ethic. We do need to, we might need to lift our ethics. We'll have to lift our work ethic.

Work ethic game, yeah. And that's a lovely segue into what I actually want to talk about. Good. Which is, so Dom, I've discovered this concept that is totally acceptable in Japanese work culture. Right. That I think you're going to love. Right? Is it that you have to go drinking with the boss every night until the last train?

Is that true? That's true. Well, it was true. It's changing now, apparently, but that used to be the thing is... Isn't that just alcoholism? If you go to Tokyo, and I spend quite a lot of time there, and you basically walk around near the stations at midnight, you'll get quite a few people who've just decided to sleep in the gutter

because they're so drunk. But basically, yeah, you've got to go to the last train. So you can't... You can't leave the bar before your boss leaves and your boss waits to the last train. So the last train shortly after midnight or thereabouts. What an asshole. It takes you back to the suburbs. You get back there at about two in the morning.

Then you have a sleep for about three hours. And then you go back and do it all again the next day. That sounds awful. But it does explain this other totally acceptable work culture thing. Very good. Which is that there is, oh, okay, well, let's have a break and then we'll. You can explain to me this new insight. Yep.

So it's called Innamuri, which literally translates as sleeping while present. Oh, right. Inamuni, I love it. So in Japan, falling asleep during meetings, a practice known as Inamuri, is generally acceptable and often viewed as a sign of dedication and hard work. Wow. So you turn up, you fall asleep in a meeting, in Australia, in America, in the U.S. In the UK, people would go, in the rest of the world, that would be terrible. People would go, what a fuck weird.

What are you doing? Pay attention, you fuck weird. In Japan, it's like, he's senior management material. Yeah, dedicated. Well, Charles, they are clearly linked together. Yes. I'm not being facetious here. Like, I've often wondered what the physical upshot is of that culture,

the idea that you have to work these incredibly long hours, and then often go drinking. Of course, at some point, people are going to fall asleep. And you see this on the train, on these last trains, like about half the carriage is actually asleep. Asleep. And somehow, this is another, I don't know how this works, but somehow almost all of them will wake up at the right station.

I don't know how that works, but it does. People just have a little doze. They're not. Suddenly they get up, often they drool. They'll get off at the right station. I've seen this many times. Wow. Okay.

In Amuri. And then the next day, They'll get there for the 8 a.m. meeting, but they won't be awake. While not universally admired, the practice is seen as a mark of diligence rather than laziness, though it carries unspoken rules, right? Oh, dear, okay. It is acceptable for senior executives to fall asleep at meetings and is the norm for somebody who has proven their worth in the company.

So you can't just turn up day one. This is getting less attractive to me as a working place. But I think we've done enough episodes of this podcast. podcast, but we have proven our diligence. Well, I mean, occasionally when there's a lengthy Charles Firth theory, I mean, it's fair to say, I'm occasionally just going, yeah, yeah, and the thing is, you falling asleep would not be a mark of your lack of interest or laziness. No, no, just be that I'm so devoted to the podcast and you're hearing about all of your theories

that sometimes there's just too many of them. Yeah, well, look, that's, that is reassuring. So back in the days of the Chaser, most notably when we did our tour and, we, our, our biggest tour. I would often have a sleep just before going on stage. I have a little 20 minute nap sometimes on the stage. And that was seen as lame on my part. But in fact, it was a sign of my dedication. And I'd occasionally sleep under my desk in the old Chase at TV office as well, again, out of sheer dedication to all that was going on. Because I think the reason why I found this out was I was doing some more research for the anti-social social club. Oh, yes. We're going to

launch. Yes, that's right. Which a few listeners have emailed in saying that apparently that concept already exists. Oh, yeah. There's actually a T-shirt. Oh, that's no. I'm sorry. I mean, we might be the first of the pun. Yeah.

But actually having a venue with antisocial social club. And you know that I've started reaching out to real estate agents. Have you? I'm very good. I didn't know that. That's great. And I've said, It's in the meeting when I was asleep.

I've said that we needed a minimum 10-year lease. Yeah, that's right. Because we can't be bothered moving. It's worth remembering, for those who didn't hear that episode. It's not only is it a great idea, but it also involves a place to record the podcasts. Yes, exactly. Like, it's going to involve, so the antisocial social club, just to bring everyone up to speed, is the idea that you set up a club that is primarily dedicated to daytime sleeping.

Yes, that's right. So, you know, if you're ducking out for a meeting out of the office, you can say, oh, I'm just going to, and it'll have some sort of alias that sounds like a meeting room, sort of co-working space. That's right. Like the meeting space or something. But actually, it'll just be a series of meeting rooms that are actually just beds, and you'll get to be able to have a, you know, two hour and out, three hour and a little pound out.

And there'll be places to hang out. There we squash your couches, there be beers, we pull tables. Yeah, exactly. And then a podcast studio. Yeah. And maybe, should we have a library as well? I think we should have a library. We absolutely should know.

It's the one place where there are books in five years time. And maybe we have a sort of no devices little policy going on as well. Like, except in the places where you can work. Yeah, that's not a bad idea. Yeah, check your devices. Check your devices. We can pay an intern to just check all of your messages. Or just get AI to do it.

Yeah, that'll be reliable. Get Apple intelligence to work out what a priority notifications. I'm glad you've been advancing at church. And I think why I found out about this socially acceptable napping is that there's another concept in Japan called Hirun. Hirane. Hirane, is it? Which is napping during the day.

Yes. Well, I've always been a fan of that. Right. But my understanding is Hirone is not as socially acceptable as falling asleep in meetings. Yes. Like, Huronay is sort of seen as a bit lazy or, you know, like you can't manage your time. Yes, you're actually choosing to have a nap.

Whereas obviously, you've turned up to the meeting and your body's just gone up. Yeah. It's sort of dedication. Like, I am here. I'm present while sleeping. I'm giving all of myself that I can to the company. Yes. But unfortunately, I've hit the limit for how much I can be conscious for.

So I feel like, I mean, maybe that should be the name of. our club, Hiraneh. Or the other one, what was the other one called? It was called, Um, Inamuri.

Inamuri. Because they would also have sort of Japanese chic. Like I feel like a little Japanese theme. Yeah, little lanterns and things. And we get of Saki. Oh, that's good.

And Japanese beer. Japanese beer is very good. Oh, that's not a bad idea. And can we get investors from Japan? Is that the, are we funding this thing, Charles?

Or is it just... I think it's really important that it be funded through memberships. Like, you pay a membership fee. Oh, it's going to be a registered club. The whole idea was that it would be a registered club. Yeah, it would be a registered club. I think that that'll just work.

Like, how much does it cost to rent, say, a large building? A large building in the city. It can't be more than a few hundred bucks. How much does Justin Hems pay for, you know, the top floor of Ivy? Oh, yeah. That would be like. Or hemisphere, yeah, yeah, yeah. But also what Justin Hems does, this is the trick, and this is what we should do, is

Like, have you seen what he's doing down in Melbourne? No. He bought some car park. Oh, yes, that's right. He bought a car park. Once it turned it into some sort of trendy, trend trend. Yeah. That's what we should do.

We just buy... The Golden Street Carpark. The ugliest car park in all Sydney. Yeah. And then we turn it into a sort of skyscraper. Oh, and then use the funds of the skyscraper to pay for the club on the bottom five levels or whatever. Yeah, exactly. Great.

Because that's... That is a. advice that I once got from a very rich man, because I said, how do you sort of fund all these philanthropic, you know, amazing ventures? And he went, oh, there's only one thing that reliably makes money in Australia, which is property developing. Yes. No matter what you are, if you're actually successful in Australia, you're actually secretly, mainly just a property developer. I think I know who this person was. Yes, yeah. If I can just guess from the description. And yeah, look, that's the difference

Is there are property developers who keep their money And there are property developers who use their spend money To do worthwhile things Yes If all which people are property developers Because what we're going to do We'll pay for the club through negative gearing That's what we'll do

Of course. Yes, of course. There you go. So I kind of feel like Australia should take up In a Murray. In a Murray. We should take it up as a sort of national Well, I'd like to see this in Parliament.

Yeah, well, I think you already do in Parliament, don't you? Like, everyone was so harsh to Barnaby Joyce. But if we'd seen it as a cultural practice. Yeah, it's in a murray. When he was sleeping in the planter box. Yeah, on the curve. It was all that he could give of himself. He'd already given so much, you see.

Right. So, no, no, but what I'm saying is if you're feeling a little bit tired today. Oh, yes. And you're at work, maybe the thing to do is in a worry. You know what? We normally do a 15 minute minimum of our episodes just because we committed to that contractually in a now expired contract. I reckon for this one, just, just, let's just, let's just go to sleep. All right, we'll just keep the tape rolling for another three or four minutes to make the minimum.

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