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apnews.com

Japan, a nation so hardworking its language has a term for literally working oneself to death, is trying to address a worrisome labor shortage by coaxing more people and companies to adopt four-day workweeks.

The Japanese government first expressed support for a shorter working week in 2021, after lawmakers endorsed the idea. The concept has been slow to catch on, however; about 8% of companies in Japan allow employees to take three or more days off per week, while 7% give their workers the legally mandated one day off, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

Hoping to produce more takers, especially among small and medium-sized businesses, the government launched a “work style reform” campaign that promotes shorter hours and other flexible arrangements along with overtime limits and paid annual leave. The labor ministry recently started offering free consulting, grants and a growing library of success stories as further motivation.

“By realizing a society in which workers can choose from a variety of working styles based on their circumstances, we aim to create a virtuous cycle of growth and distribution and enable each and every worker to have a better outlook for the future,” states a ministry website about the “hatarakikata kaikaku” campaign, which translates to “innovating how we work.”

  • GiddyGap@lemm.eeEnglish
    191·
    2 months ago

    Having lived and worked for many years in both Europe and the US, the US has the absolute worst work-life balance and labor regulations I’ve ever experienced in my life. Japan makes the US look like a kindergarten.

    • NineMileTower@lemmy.worldEnglish
      52·
      2 months ago

      The article literally says that the Japanese have a word for people who work so hard they die.

  • alvvayson@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    9·
    2 months ago

    It always surprised me that the country that pioneered Lean production techniques has always had such an enormous waste of labour resources in their office culture.

    They have one of the lowest GDP per hour worked of all Industrial nations.

    Italy, Spain and Germany have way higher labour productivity, while even Turkey edges out Japan.

    • lemmyvore@feddit.nlEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      Also, it’s established practice for workers to stagger their off days across the week.

      This way both the company and things like services, banks, stores etc. can be available 7 days a week without any undue pressure.

      So they’re already well positioned to take advantage of flexible working time.

  • jjjalljs@ttrpg.networkEnglish
    8·
    2 months ago

    Sometimes cultures have really toxic ideas on them. Probably all cultures have something. Like in the US there’s a lot of “the only emotion men are allowed is anger”, for example.

    How do you fix that? Is there a general solution? Because sometimes it’s like enforced by the very people it’s harming.

    But it’s all social. Made up. It’s not like physics. We can’t all decide that acceleration due to gravity on earth is now a nice round 10 m/s². But we could just decide working long hours is bullshit.

    • skaffi@infosec.pubEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      This might be philosophical, but I think a lot of people make a mistake, when they assume that just because something is made up, it somehow makes that thing less real, and less of an obstacle to overcome. The quality of being made up says something about a thing’s origin, not about its level of realness.

      As stated, that notion might be philosophical, but following it’s own rules, that doesn’t impact the degree to which it, as with any other idea, exists as a thing that has the quality of realness (distinct from truth value) to it.

      • jjjalljs@ttrpg.networkEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        It definitely changes the options available to overcoming it!

        A small club has a bylaw saying they serve no hard alcohol at parties. That’s a real rule that is enforced. But they can change it with an agreement, or just ignore it from time to time.

        Something like acceleration due to gravity is going to happen no matter what.

  • GratefullyGodless@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    2 months ago

    Well, that would be one way to encourage young folks to have more babies and turn around Japans low birth rate. More time to actually spend in relationships with someone other than your coworkers would be a good step in the right direction.

    • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
      1·
      2 months ago

      A real struggle is couples finding daycare, especially when a lot of them are crammed into the same area chasing jobs. Remote and other things would also do a lot to help this.

  • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
    6·
    2 months ago

    Well, it probably says something that I read about this here rather than getting it from my company, heh. That said, we are fully remote and flex time for at least a lot of the engineering side.

  • Funwayguy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    2 months ago

    a nation so hardworking…

    Or hardly working given how backwards and out of date the work culture is, but sure let’s make this out to be the fault of employees who are likely overworking due to low pay. An extra day off isn’t going to fix the systemic cultural issues, class discrimination, xenophobia… the list could go on and on.

    Calling this innovative when Japan has yet to modernize its business practices, or admitting it’s an issue, is disingenuous at best.

  • 2ugly2live@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    2 months ago

    But will they feel safe to use it? I feel like they tried this with time off, but workers felt like they couldn’t use it without repercussions to their career and work social life.

    • MutilationWave@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      2 months ago

      It’s like those jobs with “unlimited” PTO in the US. Yeah go ahead and use it all you want then see if you ever get a raise or even how long you last. I’m sure some companies do it right but I think it’s a trap.

      • hydrospanner@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        2 months ago

        Most jobs like that, or really any pay scheme other than piece work or an hourly wage usually has the process of:

        1. You can take as much PTO as you like.
        2. You can take as much PTO as you like…provided you get all your work done.
        3. You work like a dog, get all your work done, and take time off.
        4. Since you were able to get everything done and have time left over to not work, your boss increases your workload, so now you have to work like a dog, all the time, or else you’ll never get everything done.

        It’s like playing chess, and while the other player can’t change the rules as they go, but a condition for playing with them is that they get two moves every turn.

        • jumjummy@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          2 months ago

          Don’t forget that with “unlimited PTO” you have nothing to cash out in the states that allow you to do that when you leave.

      • Got_Bent@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        The entire scam of unlimited PTO is that the company doesn’t have to pay out any unused time when you leave.

        It certainly doesn’t increase the time off you get while still at the company. Studies show people take less time when it’s unlimited.

    • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
      1·
      2 months ago

      That’s (every day of every week) actually illegal in most circumstances with labor law. There’s a bit of nuance and edge cases, but this would be super illegal for the average employee to have to do and the government has been getting more strict about it.

  • profdc9@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    The question is, which worker in an office will be the first to come in only four days a week.? They have to make management shut down the office, otherwise the workers will be too afraid of management to not be seen.