In a groundbreaking move to address Japan's declining population, Tokyo's metropolitan government will implement a four-day workweek starting this April, reports Fortune. The initiative, led by one of the country's largest employers, aims to help working parents balance childcare responsibilities with their careers.
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike announced the policy change during the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly's regular session, as reported by the Japan Times. "We will continue to review work styles flexibly to ensure that women do not have to sacrifice their careers due to life events such as childbirth or child-rearing," Koike stated.
The decision comes as Japan faces an unprecedented demographic challenge. Government data shows that between January and June, the country recorded 350,074 births, marking a 5.7% decrease from the same period in 2023, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
Japan's total fertility rate – representing the number of children a woman has in her lifetime – stood at 1.2 in 2023, with Tokyo's rate even lower at 0.99. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) indicates that a rate of 2.1 is necessary to maintain a stable population. The Central Intelligence Agency reports that the median age of Japanese citizens is 49.9 years, compared to 38.9 years in the United States.
The new policy includes a "child care partial leave" provision, allowing eligible employees to reduce their daily work hours by two. This initiative builds upon Japan's decades-long efforts to boost birth rates, which began in the 1990s with mandatory parental leave policies, daycare subsidies, and direct cash payments to parents.
Despite these measures, government data shows the birth rate has continued to decline over the past eight years. The situation particularly affects working women in Japan, where the International Monetary Fund reports that women perform five times more unpaid work, including childcare and elder care, than men – one of the largest gender gaps among OECD countries.
Research suggests that four-day workweeks could help address this imbalance. According to a study by 4 Day Week Global, men reported spending 22% more time on childcare and 23% more time on housework during trial programs across six countries.
Peter Miscovich, global future of work leader at real-estate services company JLL, said that shorter workweeks have shown positive results: "The upside from all of that has been less stress, less burnout, better rest, better sleep, less cost to the employee, higher levels of focus and concentration during the working hours, and in some cases, greater commitment to the organization as a result."
However, Julia Hobsbawm, founder of workplace consultancy Workathon and author of "Working Assumptions: What We Thought We Knew About Work Before Covid and Generative AI – And What We Know Now," cautioned against viewing the four-day workweek as a universal solution. She emphasized, "I firmly believe that there is no one size fits all. In a time of increasing flexibility across working practices, both technological and human, you simply can't say that the one size that might fit one industry, in one country, for one purpose, of a four-day week, fits all."
