Why Japan's workaholics might not embrace a four-day workweek

Japan has ramped up its push for corporations to undertake a four-day workweek, however these efforts face steep challenges in a rustic well-known for its workaholic tradition.

The Japanese authorities lately initiated a “work style reform” campaign aimed toward selling versatile work preparations, shorter hours and additional time limits. To additional encourage this initiative, the labor ministry has additionally begun providing subsidies and free consulting services. 

The transfer marks a extra concerted effort after the federal government first floated help for a shorter workweek in 2021 when lawmakers endorsed the concept. However the idea has not been mandated, and has been sluggish to achieve traction.

“The explanations Japanese work lengthy hours are cultural and social; these issues do not change rapidly,” mentioned Tim Craig, who spent over 20 years teaching and conducting research in prime enterprise colleges in Japan.

In response to the Ministry of Well being, Labor and Welfare, only about 8% of companies in Japan allow workers to take three or extra days off every week. 

Craig, who additionally wrote a book on Japanese popular and traditional culture, defined that the Japanese place a excessive premium on work as a result of they have an inclination to view it as a “optimistic a part of life,” however social stress additionally performs a job.

“In the event that they go residence early, then their colleagues will (a) look askance at them, and (b) need to work extra to cowl for them. Both manner, it is not a great feeling,” Craig elaborated. 

The office can also be the place most Japanese have most of their social interactions, the place workers are sometimes keen to remain round longer to assist the group and attend lengthy firm dinners, noticed Martin Schulz, chief coverage economist at Fujitsu.

“Being a part of an organization is sort of a part of a group, and this outcomes typically in longer work hours, not as environment friendly work hours,” he advised CNBC.

Final October, the well being ministry published its annual white paper addressing Japan’s excessively lengthy working hours and their connection to despair and karoshi, or loss of life from overwork. In 2022, 2,968 folks in Japan died by suicide attributed to karoshi, a rise from 1,935 in 2021. Japan has not launched its white paper for 2023’s statistics but.

The report highlighted that 10.1% of males and 4.2% of girls work over 60 hours every week, linking these lengthy hours to the incidence of karoshi.

“I feel that it’ll take time [for the four-day work week] to penetrate… we’re not used to being versatile,” mentioned Hiroshi Ono, professor of human sources at Hitotsubashi College.

“It is nonetheless fairly uncommon in different international locations as nicely. So I feel that Japan particularly will take a while to try this,” he added.

The small variety of corporations implementing a four-day workweek are additionally typically not conventional Japanese corporations, Ono additionally noticed, citing the example of Microsoft Japan. 

“So for the normal Japanese corporations, it’d even take longer,” he mentioned.

One among Japan’s largest corporations, Panasonic, rolled out the four-day workweek choice for workers in 2022, however only about 150 of 63,000 eligible workers opted in. 

Brokerage agency SMBC has also offered employees a four-day workweek choice since 2020. Nevertheless it has restricted eligibility to staff aged 40 years or older for both household care or “autonomous profession growth.” The choice can also be solely obtainable from the fourth yr of employment. 

Whereas the adoption charges are slim, the initiative is just not all moot.

“The general flexibility helps, undoubtedly,” mentioned Fujitsu’s Schulz, including that the federal government has been pushing corporations more durable on work-life steadiness such that infinite additional time hours aren’t allowed anymore. 

Moreover, specialists advised CNBC that the idea of karoshi is just not a phenomenon distinctive to Japan. In 2019, more than 770 workers reportedly died due to work stress in Sweden.

“The one factor that is distinctive to Japan is that the ministry really collects information on karoshi,” mentioned Ono.