社畜 ～shachiku～

This creation is inspired by noodle stopper figure. Noodle stopper figure was created to help consumers cook their cup noodles by keeping the cup noodles’ lid in place. This creation is a depiction of an overworked shachiku/wage slave who works in a 'toxic culture' and survives on cup noodles...

In some countries, instant noodles is a symbol of workaholic culture. Companies have a stash of instant cup noodles in their snack pantries. Instant noodles is a quick fix for those who don’t have time to maintain a reasonable work-life balance. Also, many people would eat instant noodles in an attempt to save money. Instant noodle/cup noodle is a must-have in overtime work's survival kit.

The term “shachiku” (社畜) combined kaisha (会社), company in Japanese, and kasaku (家畜), livestock in Japanese, is a metaphor that describes office workers at the bottom who discard self-esteem and sacrifice their private time for the company, never complaining about overwork or any other issues; a corporate slave. Shachiku has similar meaning to 'wage slave' in English.