Tokyo government gives workers 4-day workweek to boost fertility, family time

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/06/asia/tokyo-government-4-day-workweek-intl-hnk?cid=ios_app

27 comments

  2. do you know that critics worry that reduced workweeks could lead to decreased earnings for some employees or simply condense the same workload into fewer days

  3. The 4 day work week has been proven to be more effective for companies and more beneficial for workers. I hope it’s implemented more

  6. Reduced work week without reducing pay, yes?
    Also still 8 hours? Because fuck working 12 hours a day just to have an extra day off. 4x8h hell yes.

  8. If my previous experiences in east Asian work culture are still valid, 4 day work weeks means you will still get calls from work in the other 3 days due to “emergencies”

  10. Lol, they need a huge cultural change not just more time on their hands.

  11. Having worked in Japan, I get the feeling that this means working more hours during fewer days. And then probably do a little service zangyou on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

  12. It wont work. It will give them more time, yes, but the costs of living and housing are still the same.

  14. God this is so brilliant, it needs to be implemented everywhere. It would be so good for everyone.

  15. It’s a good move on the part of government. It balance work and family time and is a win-win.

  17. Question: Will employees actually be able to use this scheme without any negative consequences?

    I am just wondering if it will impact the possibility of promotions and salary increases. Will it also apply to single people (you can’t start a family if you hardly have time to find a partner)?

  18. Awww they are trying to improve our captive enrichment, gotta swing things the other way to see if they can get us breeding again.

  20. Make single parent (dad / mom) able to provide for the entire household, with some saving and affordable housing. It’ll be the boost of fertility

  22. It won’t work.

    At this point you may as well pay people to do nothing but have kids and be parents full time. That’s the only way it will ever work.

  24. >**The Japanese capital is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees, in its latest push to help working mothers and boost record-low fertility rates.**

    >The Tokyo Metropolitan Government says the new arrangement, which begins in April, could give employees three days off every week. It separately announced another policy that will allow parents with children in grades one to three in elementary schools to trade off a bit of their salary for the option to clock out early.

    >“We will review work styles … with flexibility, ensuring no one has to give up their career due to life events such as childbirth or childcare,” said Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike when she unveiled the plan in a policy speech on Wednesday.

    >“Now is the time for Tokyo to take the initiative to protect and enhance the lives, livelihoods and economy of our people during these challenging times for the nation,” she added.

    >Japan’s fertility rate, which has seen a precipitous fall for many years, reached another record low in June, even as the government ramped up efforts to encourage young people to get married and start families.

    >Only 727,277 births were recorded last year, with the fertility rate – the number of children a woman has in her lifetime – dropping to a fresh low of 1.2, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. For a population to remain stable, it needs a fertility rate of 2.1.

    >The Japanese government has been pushing for a raft of “now or never” policies to reverse the population crisis, including ensuring men to take paternity leaves, while other local governments have also introduced measures to improve work conditions.

    >Many sociologists attribute the ever-plunging birth rates to Japan’s unforgiving work culture and rising costs of living. Grueling hours have long been a problem for corporate Japan where workers often suffer from health hazards and, in extreme cases, “karoshi,” a term meaning death by over work.

    >As in other countries, women are often under pressure to choose between their career or family, but Japan’s unique overtime work culture makes pregnancy and raising children especially daunting.

    >In fact, according to the World Bank, the gender gap in the country’s labor force participation, which stood at 55% for women and 72% for men last year, is higher than other high-income nations.

    >The shift to a four-day workweek has sparked growing interest in the West, where some companies are beginning to explore compressed hours as a way to attract talent seeking better work-life balance. Some studies have shown that it improves well-being and productivity among workers.

    >But the idea is still seen as radical for Japanese companies, which often equates time spent at work with loyalty for the company.

    >And Tokyo isn’t the only place in Asia to implement more family friendly policies. Earlier this year, Singapore introduced new guidelines requiring all firms to consider requests by employees for flexible-working arrangements. That could include four-day weeks or flexible hours.

  25. This kind of thing isn’t new here. A few years back the government stared promoting a bunch of stuff like the last Friday of the month letting workers go home early or paternity leave for new fathers. 

     Ultimately Japanese people don’t use these things due to social pressure and will at best work for free while taking advantage of those benefits. Nothing is going to change until companies are properly penalized.

  27. This is the inevitable response to falling birth rates. Don’t believe the lies where people say that these populations will go extinct. Societies that do not give birth are essentially going on strike, and will be rewarded with an increasingly better quality of life to a point where they will actually want to have babies.

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