Japan is said to have reported only 7.27 lakh births in 2024, which has become a cause of concern. Therefore, the Tokyo government has decided to do its bit to help the situation. It has announced a four-day workweek starting April 2025, so that the fertility rate improves. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike has announced that employees can choose any three days in the week to take time off from work.
It is hoped that a shorter work week will encourage couples in Japan to spend more quality time with each other. This, in turn, it is hoped, will result in more babies being born.
Additionally, the government is allowing parents with young kids to leave work earlier in exchange for a salary cut.
Japan is infamous for its work culture, characterised by gruelling schedules and extreme workload, which forces women to give up the thought of raising a family of their own.
Moreover, the Japanese are labelled as workaholics. In fact, the culture of hard work is so ingrained that people are known to literally work themselves to death. Only about eight per cent of companies in the country have adopted a five-day workweek. Only seven per cent allow their workers to take a day off, which is compulsory by law.
With the dearth of labour threatening to affect the economy, the Japanese government has been pushing organisations to embrace a four-day workweek for some time now.
Many countries have tried experimenting with four-day work weeks in recent times. Most of have reported an increase in productivity and a marked improvement in work-life balance and overall health of workers. Australia, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark and the UK are some of the countries that have experimented with shorter work weeks.