Remote working in Japan has declined after the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic came to an end, as more companies returned to the office, but hybrid work has taken root among many who adopted it, according to a survey.

The percentage of employees who work remotely — either fully or partially — dropped slightly from 27% in 2021 to 24.8% in 2023 nationwide, according to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. In the Tokyo metropolitan area, the percentage of such workers dropped from 42.3% to 38.1% over the same period.

The survey — which received responses from 36,228 salaried workers, among whom 5,832 had worked remotely or adopted a hybrid work model in the past year — shows a rising trend in the number of hybrid workers since the onset of the pandemic.

The percentage of workers who spend more than one day a week working remotely has surged since 2020 and remains above 70%.

However, the percentage of people working remotely for at least five days a week dropped from 19.4% in 2021 to 18.7% in 2022, before sliding further to 17.7% in 2023.

An overwhelming majority of respondents who currently work remotely in some capacity say they wish to continue to do so; over 50% indicated that they wish to continue working remotely for at least three days a week.

The survey also found that younger employees in both management and nonmanagement roles prefer to work remotely. Among those age 15 to 29, one-third said they might not necessarily follow their employers' instructions to go to the office or would negotiate with their superiors so that they could work remotely.

Some 11.3% of those in the same age group said they would consider finding a new job or starting their own business that would allow them to work remotely — the highest among all age groups.

For the 30,396 respondents who indicated that they hadn’t worked remotely in the past year, the No. 1 reason was that they were “not allowed to do so by the company,” followed by “the job requires direct interaction or on-site work, such as customer service.”

Some 67% of a total of 40,000 respondents — including those who are self-employed — cited less burden from commuting as a positive effect of remote working, while 54% expressed concerns that the practice would lead to a drop in physical activity.