The 4-Day Week Comes to Japan. Maybe.

I recently discussed the toxic work culture of South Korea. Well, Japan is equally notorious as a nation with a toxic work culture. So the Japanese beginning to respond to the reality of the labor market instead of doubling down on a staid ideology about work is remarkable given Korea doing the opposite.

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 percent of companies in Japan allow employees to take three or more days off per week, while 7 percent 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.”

But it’s one thing to mandate this and another to get everyday Japanese to take advantage of this. Let me give you an example. When I was there in the summer of 2022, a horrible heat wave hit. Now, Japan was so predictably Covid-phobic that everyone was wearing masks outside too. The government had to launch a public information campaign urging people to stop masking outside. I was like, you ain’t in the U.S. anymore Loomis! But no one did it! It was 100 with humidity and everyone was still masking because That’s What You Do. So the response from Japanese workers to this mandate has been underwhelming.

The department overseeing the new support services for businesses says only three companies have come forward so far to request advice on making changes, relevant regulations and available subsidies, illustrating the challenges the initiative faces.

Perhaps more telling: of the 63,000 Panasonic Holdings Corp. employees who are eligible for four-day schedules at the electronics maker and its group companies in Japan, only 150 employees have opted to take them, according to Yohei Mori, who oversees the initiative at one Panasonic company.

The government’s official backing of a better work-life balance represents a marked change in Japan, a country whose reputed culture of workaholic stoicism often got credited for the national recovery and stellar economic growth after World War II.

I am not sure how you transform a work culture that intense. But it is a story worth following.