OAN Staff James Meyers
3:43 PM – Monday, December 9, 2024
Tokyo’s government reportedly plans to introduce a four-day workweek for employees in an attempt to support young families and boost record-low fertility across the island country of Japan.
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Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike announced that starting in April, employees of the Metropolitan government will have the option to take three days off each week.
“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,” she said during a policy speech at the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly’s fourth regular session.
With Japan’s fertility rate on a downward spiral of a record-low of 1.2, a fertility rate of 2.1 is needed for a stable population. In 2023, the government looked for ways to support families, CNN reported.
Meanwhile, Governor Koike revealed an additional policy allowing parents with children in elementary schools to trade off a bit of their salary for the option to clock out early.
“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 said.
According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, only 727,277 births were recorded last year in Japan. Experts believe the low number could be due to Japan’s heavy overtime work culture, which pressures many women to choose between having a career or a family. The “gender gap” in the country’s labor force participation is higher than in other high-income nations, standing at 55% for women and 72% for men last year, according to the World Bank.
However, some have attributed the low infertility rate to Japanese dating culture in general.
On an episode of CNN’s 2019 documentary series “Sex & Love Around the World,” it highlighted certain Japanese dating customs. Many Japanese women interviewed in the program admitted that they were never intimate with their husbands, and some even admitted to finding sexual fulfillment and closeness elsewhere, preferring to cheat. On the flip side, many Japanese men – married or single – consider it perfectly normal to look at porn in public, use sex dolls and go to “soaplands” or “love hotels,” which are essentially brothels, the CNN interviewees explained.
Those in favor of the four-day work schedule also argue that a shorter workweek could help provide government employees with more time to raise their children, becoming closer with their spouse as well in the process.
“If everyone is getting more time off, I assume that’ll benefit the population and the country as a whole,” said one X user.
In 2022, a series of global trials conducted by 4 Day Week Global, a nonprofit organization, took part in a four-day workweek pilot program. Nine out of the 10 employees who took part in the program wanted to continue with the four-day workweek. They claimed that it improved their mental and physical well-being.
Earlier this year, Singapore introduced new guidelines mandating that all firms consider employee requests for flexible working arrangement, which included four-day workweeks.
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