...it's not mismanagement on their part, though. It is literally a cultural difference in "you and your team have worked hard, have 4-5 days off because you've earned it by not taking a day off that isn't a holiday in almost two years." That is how they're raised. That is how they're taught. If your peer is working this hard, you should strive to be working just as hard as they are, if not harder. If you're not, then you're disgracing your peers and who you work for. You want a mental health day? You don't really need it, do you? No one else does, and if you take that day off you're going to push your work off on Tanaka for the day and you know he's already swamped.

Yeah, that happens in the west. I can say with some certainty that part of those teams take a break after long dev hours, and then the other half will once the others are back. But that's not how the Japanese do. The patch being delayed some is not the end of the world. Unsub and play something else until patch drops.