Japan is pushing a 4-day working week — but its workaholic culture makes it a hard sell

Japan has stepped up efforts to push companies to adopt a four-day work week, but those efforts face serious challenges in a country known for its workaholic culture.

The Japanese government recently Carry out “style reform” activities Designed to promote flexible work arrangements, shorter working hours and limits on overtime. To further encourage this initiative, the Ministry of Labor has also begun Provide subsidies and Free consultation service.

The move marks a more concerted effort by the government after first proposing support for a shorter work week in 2021 and gaining support from lawmakers. But the concept has yet to be enforced and is slowly gaining traction.

“There are cultural and social factors why Japanese people work long hours; these things are not going to change anytime soon,” said Tim Craig spent over 20 years of teaching and research experience Studied at Japan's top business school.

According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Only about 8% of companies Japan allows employees to take three or more days off per week.

Craig, he also Wrote a book about Japanese pop culture and traditional cultureexplained that Japanese people place a high value on work because they tend to see it as “an active part of life,” but social pressure also plays a role.

“If they go home early, then their coworkers will (a) look at them sideways and (b) have to work more to take care of them. Either way, it's not a good feeling,” Craig explains.

The workplace is also where most Japanese people have most of their social interactions, with employees often willing to stay longer to help teams and participate in long company days, said Martin Schulz, chief policy economist at Fujitsu Dinner.

“Being part of a company is almost part of a community, which often results in longer working hours, not productive working hours,” he told CNBC.

In October last year, the Ministry of Health Publish annual white paper Addressing long working hours and their relationship to depression and karoshi (or karoshi) in Japan. In 2022, 2,968 people in Japan committed suicide due to karoshi, an increase from 1,935 in 2021.

The report highlights that 10.1% of men and 4.2% of women work more than 60 hours a week, which is related to the incidence of karoshi.

Hiroshi Ono, a professor of human resources at Hitotsubashi University, said: “I think it will take time for (the four-day work week) to penetrate… We are not used to flexibility.”

“This is quite rare in other countries as well. So I think Japan in particular will take some time to do this,” he added.

Ono also observed that the few companies that implement a four-day work week are usually not traditional Japanese companies. Citing the example of Microsoft Japan.

“So for traditional Japanese companies, it may even take longer,” he said.

One of the largest companies in Japan, Matsushitalaunching a four-day work week option for employees in 2022, but Only about 150 of 63,000 eligible workers Opt in.

Brokerage firm SMBC also offers employees a four-day working week This option has been an option since 2020. This option is also only available from the fourth year of employment.

While adoption is low, the initiative is not without merit.

“Overall flexibility has certainly helped,” Fujitsu's Schultz said, adding that the government has been trying to push companies to achieve a work-life balance that would no longer allow endless overtime.

Furthermore, experts told CNBC that the concept of karoshi is not a phenomenon unique to Japan. 2019, More than 770 workers in Sweden reportedly died due to workplace stress.

“The only unique thing about Japan is that the department actually collects data on karoshi,” Ono said.