In Japan, the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded amidst a heated debate about the country’s ‘working style’, work–life balance (or lack thereof), and a growing recognition of the urgent need for comprehensive change in the prevailing work culture. This article proposes that the crisis acted as a double-edged ‘revealer’. As such, it simultaneously raised employees’ hopes that the crisis would trigger change in the masculine corporate warrior culture, while exposing the deeply entrenched impediments to this desired change. Beginning with the public debate about the crisis as a potential trigger for change in the so-called ‘Japanese’ work culture, which has also fuelled hopes for change, the article examines the narratives of employees forced into new forms of flexible working by the COVID-19 pandemic. These female and male accounts shed light on gendered experiences of work, and perceptions of what constitutes the ‘Japanese’ ideal worker. The accounts also reveal a growing and troubling awareness of the barriers to change in the culture of work.