The government wants it, companies offer it, but the attempt to minimize the workload still fails: Japan does not want the 4-day week.
Who would voluntarily give up a four-day week? The Japanese. Despite recent increased initiatives by the government of the island state, the possible reduction in weekly working hours is hardly accepted. Even after the legal regulations have been created and a campaign (including free advice) has recently been launched with a focus on small and medium-sized companies, enthusiasm among employees remains low. The Associated Press (AP) reports on this.
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Better voluntary (unpaid) overtime than free time
How many companies offer a 4-day week? About eight percent of companies in Japan allow their employees to take three or more days off. The legal minimum is still one day off. About seven percent only allow that, according to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labor. 85 percent rely on the usual five-day week.
How many people work less? There are no comprehensive statistics on this, but there are surveys and statements from companies, such as Panasonic Holdings Corp.: According to the person responsible for the initiative to innovate work culture, only 150 of the 63,000 employees have taken advantage of the opportunity so far, as AP reports.
Why don’t more Japanese people take time off? The reason for this can be found in the work culture. In Japan, working more than the company actually requires has long been the norm. However, there are social standards that view voluntary, unpaid overtime as normal. No one wants to take extra vacation or even give the impression of being less hardworking than his or her colleagues.
Why does the Japanese government interfere in the labor market in this way? Japan is already suffering from a significant ageing population – and the problems will become even greater in the future. The country must bring as many young people into the job market as possible, keep them healthy there for as long as possible and at the same time allow them to start families with more than one child. This is hardly possible under the conditions that have prevailed for decades.
Similar to us, online shopping is extremely popular in Japan. However, the Japanese are also slowly running out of workers for this, because someone has to drive the trucks to deliver the packages. The country may take a special approach to solving the problem: Japanese love shopping online, but who will deliver the goods to the customer? A 500-kilometer-long conveyor belt is to replace 25,000 trucks