Business / Corporate Dec 30, 2019
Old habits die hard: Japan still struggling with push toward working style reform
by Masumi Koizumi
Older managers are failing to recognize changing expectations among a younger workforce.
Commentary / Japan Dec 13, 2019
How much would you pay to work less?
by Rachel Rosenthal
Women are more willing to forgo salary for better life balance, but flexible policies could widen the income gap with men.
Business / Corporate Dec 5, 2019
Advertising giant Dentsu again found violating rules on overtime hours
Dentsu Inc. said Thursday it had again received a warning from labor authorities over illegal overtime practices. Two years after being convicted over working practices involving long hours, which had led to the suicide of an employee, the advertising giant was found to have violated ...
National Dec 4, 2019
Diet passes bill giving teachers more holiday but longer work hours during busy periods
As part of work style reforms, the Diet enacted a bill Wednesday to introduce a new working-hour system that will enable public school teachers to take extended holidays. The legislation to revise a special law on teacher salaries was adopted at a plenary meeting of ...
Business / Corporate | Regional voices: Chubu Nov 29, 2019
Toyota group member Aisin Seiki cuts low-priority meetings, reducing work hours as a result
Aisin Seiki Co., a Toyota group auto parts maker based in Kariya, Aichi Prefecture, has set about conducting work-style reform, including abolishing dress codes and low-priority meetings to give its workers breathing room to come up with new ideas. To get rid of meetings held ...
Business / Corporate Nov 22, 2019
Suicide of Mitsubishi Electric unit employee caused by overwork, labor office rules
The supervisor’s December 2017 suicide at Mitsubishi Electric unit Melco Semiconductor came after he logged over 100 hours of overtime per month.
National | Regional voices: Chubu Nov 15, 2019
Foreign students in Japan hold back on applying for newly created visas due to past illegal overwork
Many foreign students in Nagoya have recently been found to be reluctant to apply for newly created visas intended to bring more workers from abroad, fearing their applications might not be accepted because they have been working more part-time hours than permitted for those ...
Business / Corporate Nov 11, 2019
Do more with less: New Zealand firm sees huge productivity boost with four-day workweek
A New Zealand estate planning firm that made headlines when it trialed a four-day week last year has seen a big productivity increase since it made the change permanent, with staff spending less time surfing the internet. Perpetual Guardian tried cutting working hours to 30 ...
Business | Commentary Nov 11, 2019
Four-day workweek could be just what Japan needs
by Noah Smith
In the sitcom "The Office," a bumbling manager spends much of his time distracting the hapless employees of a paper company's local sales branch. Somehow, despite all the antics that seem to interfere with getting anything done, the branch consistently manages to be the ...
Business Nov 5, 2019
Four-day workweek boosted productivity by 40%, Microsoft Japan experiment shows
by Kazuaki Nagata
In a rare corporate experiment to test a four-day work system, Microsoft Corp.’s Japan branch found that their productivity improved by about 40 percent, the company said. The test involved 2,300 regular office workers in August. Amid calls for improving efficiency in the workplace in a ...
Business Oct 15, 2019
As technology blurs the boundaries between personal and professional lives, some pioneering companies in Japan are going against the grain by allowing employees to refuse work phone calls and emails on their days off. As others grapple with ways of implementing work-style reforms, these firms ...
National Oct 1, 2019
In survey of working women in Japan with mental health issues, a third blame harassment at work
More than a third of female workers certified as having mental health issues cited some form of harassment as the main cause, a government survey showed Tuesday. Some 36.3 percent of women with mental illnesses said that they had suffered from sexual harassment, assault, bullying ...