People don't complain either.I think you can put an asterix on this one. People don't complain about long hours in Japanese megacorps for the same reason they don't complain about them in game development studios: if you care enough to complain, you're at nearly zero risk of ending up with that job. Nobody becomes seishain at a Japanese megacorp and then suddenly gets surprised about the working conditions. I went into it with eyes wide open, too. (Although I really underestimated how much that would impact my happiness.)
The folks who would most dislike 17 hour days or 70 hour weeks communicate their displeasure by opting out of the system entirely. (Or, if they're young ladies, by going the pink collar route and quitting at 25 when they get married or 27 when their first child is born.) There is an oft-reported thing for Japanese young men of my generation to take to, basically, grifting (odd jobs, part time employment, mooching off parents, etc) as opposed to doing the salaryman thing, because the salaryman thing sucks so badly. It is probably exaggerated because it sells newspapers, but I'll bet there is a kernel or two of truth in it (c.f. "metrosexuals", "sexting", etc)
Similarly, if you look around my social circle of Japanese techy friends, you'll see a bunch of societal rejects. Not because they're geeky anime nerds, although a few are. They just saw the handwriting on the wall and said "Meh, not for me." So we've got freelancers, folks ensconced in various academic posts, weird government sinecures for techno-artists, a raft of quirky startups, permanent students, etc etc. (I'm not exactly Grade A Salaryman Role Model Material myself anymore, either, even for a white guy.)
That said: any viable alternative to this system, whether for Japan or the video game industry or Silicon Valley or anywhere else its evil takes root, is a victory for all that is good and just in the world.