In Japan, the four-day week is struggling to take off

Japanese companies don't seem any more interested than their workers to switch to a four-day week. Image: Shutterstock

From Iceland and Spain, to Belgium, the UK and Germany, it's hard to keep track of all the countries trying out the four-day working week. While these experiments are often met with success, trails in Japan have proved far less so. It seems that Japanese companies and employees are reluctant to adjust their working hours—a situation that worries the country's authorities.

Japan began testing the four-day week in 2021, in the hope that it would encourage talent retention and put an end to the culture of overwork for which the country is notorious. Indeed, employees in Japan don't count their working hours and sacrifice an average of seven contractual days off each year, according to an Expedia global survey. This overtime enables them to compensate for low basic salaries, but it can lead to burnout and even “karoshi,” death by overwork. 

The Japanese government believes that a four-day week would help safeguard the country's working population, by encouraging them to slow down. But only if they want to. Since 2022, electronics giant Panasonic has been offering its employees access to an extra day of rest, by working four days a week. But in two years, only 150 of the group's 63,000 workers have taken up the offer, reports Business Insider. This reluctance shows the extent to which Japanese work culture is built on the over-investment of workers. 

Employers in the country don't seem any more motivated than their staff to switch to a four-day week. At present, only 8% of Japanese companies allow their employees to take three or more days off a week, according to figures from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, quoted by Business Insider. 

Yet it could be in their interest to do so. Elsewhere in the world, initial feedback on the four-day week has, for the most part, been very positive. Companies that have tested the system in various countries report improved employee well-being and productivity. They are also said to have fewer difficulties retaining their employees and attracting new ones.

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Given the country's recruitment pressures, it's easy to see why the Japanese government wants to encourage business leaders to try out the four-day week. The archipelago's economic growth, and more generally, its future, are at stake.

Indeed, Japan is facing a major demographic decline. The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, an agency of the Ministry of Health, estimates that the Japanese population will decrease by 30% by 2070 if the birth rate doesn't pick up. The Japanese authorities are convinced that the country's residents would be more inclined to marry and start a family if they worked less. But changing mindsets could be easier said than done.