Japan, known for “karoshi” or “death by overwork” as workers often put in over 100 hours of overtime service for months, is looking to introduce four-day workweek to improve work-life balance.
The country’s annual economic policy guidelines, released this month, unveiled plans to push employers to adopt four-day workweeks, marking official acceptance of a once-fringe approach that has gained increasing purchase internationally amid workplace changes wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Japanese government’s proposal aims at improving the nation’s work-life balance and encourage the salaried class to cut down the amount of time spent at work. The recommendation is meant to support employees who want to further their education, take care of family members or simply to go out, spend money and even meet others, as Japan’s population ages and shrinks.
Recent Japanese administrations have sought a number of ways to overcome a sluggish national economy, but fiscal policy has run its course and the central bank is limited in the tools that it still has at its disposal. That makes reforms to the lifestyles and working styles of millions of Japanese its next approach.
There are drawbacks to the government’s plans, however, with Japan already experiencing a labor shortage brought on by fewer young people joining the workforce.
Employees, on the other hand, find the idea of a shorter working week appealing, but they do worry about reduced wages and accusations that they are not fully committed to their company.
In proposing four-day weeks, Japan joined Spain, which is launching a three-year, nationwide, voluntary 32-hour week experiment, and several other countries have been mulling the prospect. New Zealand’s and Finland’s prime ministers have also floated the idea of a four-day workweek.
