Working a Lot More Than 9 to 5 in Japan – No End in Sight?
The average length of the workweek in Japan has been declining, but a healthy work-life balance still seems like an elusive goal.
While the average length of the workweek in Japan has been getting shorter for decades, the best estimates indicate that it is still around 46 hours per week.
Beginning with regulatory initiatives, since the immediate post-War period the central government has implemented a series of reforms which have helped to encourage employers to reduce the average length of the workweek in Japan. There are, however, a number of remaining issues which inhibit further progress.
While efforts to reduce the average length of the workweek in Japan should be ongoing, there are several ideas—mainly from abroad—which could be adapted to the Japanese market to simultaneously boost productivity.
Harry Kraemer’s favorite number is 168. He even wrote a book about it. The book is called Your 168: Finding Purpose and Satisfaction in a Values-Based Life.
You may be asking “Who is Harry Kraemer?” and “What’s so important about the number 168?”
Well, Harry Kraemer is the former chairman and CEO of Baxter International, a huge U.S. based multi-national health care company. He is now the Clinical Professor of Leadership at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and an executive partner at the private equity investment firm Madison Dearborn Partners based in Chicago. I had the pleasure of hearing Harry speak to a group of approximately 100 managers from around the world at my former employer and have never forgotten his core message on that day. It all had to do with the number 168.
168 is, after all, the finite number of hours that every human being has to use—or misuse—during the course of one week (7 days/week x 24 hours/day = 168 hours/week). How we optimize this fixed limit is up to us.
Most of us are especially used to managing our time at work. While we may keep track of certain appointments outside of normal business hours, people tend to be less precise with the management of their time outside work. Not Harry.
Despite being appointed CEO at age 44 of a global enterprise which now employs nearly 50,000 people and has annual revenue of almost US $12 billion, Harry always made time to raise his five children together with his wife. One of the most effective means he used to do this was to plan how best to use all of his 168 hours each week.
While sleep accounts for more time than any other single activity, time at work comprises the next most time-consuming activity. Ever since the 19th century when the 40 hour work week was established in the West as a standard benchmark, a rough rule of thumb has been that time at the office accounts for about 1/4 of the full amount of time that all of us have to manage each week.
Before going any further, I admit that putting it that way seems like work should not be taking up as much time as it seems to occupy in our consciousness. Should not the remaining 3/4 of each week be more than enough time for a healthy work-life balance? Assuming that sleep accounts for approximately 56 hours each week (8 hours/day x 7 days/week), that should still leave 72 hours after subtracting 40 hours for work. Where does all of that time go?
Well, as usual, “the devil is in the details.” Everything else from preparing meals, commuting, doing laundry, helping children with their homework, etc. adds up quickly. Thus, to maintain a healthy work-life balance, the number of hours worked need to be managed effectively to avoid waste and free up time for other interests. That way workers should be able to optimize their 168.
It sounds easy, but it’s not.
Especially after being ridiculed for working too much in the 1980s, Japan Inc. has been on a mission to reduce the average workweek ever since.
Although I am now semi-retired, I spent more than 20 years, or about 2/3 of my career, employed in Tokyo. I also worked for a decade out of Chicago. Much of that tenure was in Global Marketing which provided exposure to work styles in Europe and about ten developing markets around the world. I managed the Japanese subsidiary of an American multi-national that had plenty of associates who would need periodic counseling to work fewer hours, toiled together with workaholics in the States, and routinely visited ultra-productive colleagues in Scandinavia who somehow were able to get everything done and then still have plenty of time to spend freely with their families. It is from this perspective that I offer a sober assessment about whether the Japanese will ever stop putting in such long hours at work.
A Quick Answer
In response to the question of whether the Japanese will ever have a shorter workweek, at this point I would say, “It’s a definite maybe.” Kidding aside, judging from progress made during the past 30 years—roughly equivalent to my whole career--Japanese workers are, in fact, now spending less time at the office. There are many reasons why this has happened, but it is unclear whether the trend will continue. It is, moreover, even more relevant to question whether Japanese workers will be able to boost productivity to get more accomplished in less time.
First, let us calibrate our understanding of the facts.
Baseline — How Long Is the Workweek in Japan?
Especially for cross-country comparisons, it has been historically difficult to measure accurately just how many hours per week Japanese spend on the job. Many variables are at play. There are, in addition, differences among types of jobs, the workplace environment (e.g., white collar vs. blue collar work), full- and part-time employees, etc.
The annual survey of annual hours worked published by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is the most commonly cited source for measuring year-over-year (YOY) data from a long list of countries. Here are the historical results from a few.
The data show that Japanese workers were putting in 2,243 hours per year back in 1970, but in 2020 they were only working 1,598 hours per year. That was 169 fewer hours per year than American workers. The Danes, a surrogate for all of Scandinavia, are also working fewer hours than in the past. Their total was only 1,346 per year in 2020.
The long-term decline in the number of hours worked on an annual basis seems directionally on track. Something has steadily caused Japanese workers to put in fewer hours than they were routinely doing several decades ago.
Upon closer inspection of the numbers, something does not appear correct.
First, just by doing the math, the OECD data seem a little light.
Dividing Japan’s 1,598 hours/year by 52 weeks/year = only 30.7 hours/week.
Even by assuming 2 weeks of paid holiday time, the total seems too low.
Dividing Japan’s 1,598 hours/year by only 50 weeks/year = 32.0 hours/week.
Even after being more generous and assuming an additional 2 weeks beyond that, the total still seems off.
Dividing Japan’s 1,598 hours/year by only 48 weeks/year = 33.3 hours/week.
What’s going on here?
It turns out that there are several factors which distort reality—particularly regarding Japanese data. Overtime work outside the company is not included, and Japan submits their data to the OECD as a combination of both full- and part-time worker data. Japan has recently legislated 16 public holidays per year (vs. only 12 in the U.S.). It is, moreover, unclear how the data sets account for paid leave and accrued vacation time, which is often never implemented in Japan. Luckily, the government of Japan provides more granular reports.
In July 2021 Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor & Welfare published the “Main Results of the Discretionary Labor System Survey” (裁量労働制実態調査の主な結果について) for 2020. These results indicate that in 2020 the average workweek in Japan was 45 hours 45 minutes. In typical Japanese fashion the report breaks down the data into highly nuanced and detailed segments.
Smaller-scale surveys confirm these findings. A survey conducted among 3,000 IT workers in 2019 determined that the length of their average work week for the full year of 2018 was 45.4 hours per week. Almost half of their respondents (48.6%) reported working between 40 and 50 hours. 1 in 5 (20.3%) said that they put in between 50 and 60 hours per week, and 14.9% worked only between 30 and 40 hours per week.
The bottom line is that the number calculated by the Ministry of Health, Labor & Welfare of just shy of 46 hours seems fairly accurate.
Although working 46 hours out of every available 168 hours per week still may seem high—and it is—this achievement was the result of a concerted effort to decrease time on the job.
Progress to Date
Fresh on the heels of a trade war with the U.S, in the late 1980s Japan came under pressure to reduce the number of hours worked by the famous Japanese “salaryman” or white-collar worker.
In the late 1980s Japan’s second largest pharmaceutical company, Sankyo, launched a tonic drink called Regain, which quickly gained a cult-like following. What propelled this beverage aimed as a pick-me-up for weary business people was its television commercial featuring a tongue-in-cheek tribute to Japan’s iconic “salaryman.” It was a source of pride among real “Japanese businessmen.”
The name of the popular jingle was Yuki-no-Shirushi (勇気のしるし), which means “Mark of Courage.” Many Japanese can identify the song from just a few lines of the lyrics, “Japanese businessman…Can you fight for 24 hours?” The signature high-contrast black and yellow packaging was hard to miss, as well.
Reading between the lines of the translated lyrics, it is easy to see how it pokes fun at the image of a “salaryman” who travels the world working without rest.
Yellow and black are signs of courage
Can you fight for 24 hours?
Regain, Regain
Our regain
A sign of courage in the attache case
Can you fight in the far world
Businessman, businessman
Japanese businessman
Putting hope on paid leave
Beijing, Moscow, Paris, New York
Regain, Regain
Our regain
Hope to increase your annual income
Cairo, London, Istabul
Businessman, Businessman
Japanese businessman
…
Due to an overwhelming number of requests for the lyrics from across Japan, it did not take long for this popular jingle to debut in karaoke bars. Sensing an opportunity to make an impression with my Japanese colleagues at the time, I practiced singing this tune until it became my juhachiban (十八番) or “go-to karaoke song.” As a young Westerner working for a Japanese multi-national, before long I rarely needed to put in a request to sing it on my own. My colleagues would simply que it up for me, so that they could have a good laugh watching a Westerner mimicking a workaholic Japanese businessman. (Of course, it never hurt to switch out some of the lyrics with the names of colleagues or—even better—the big boss. The fact that my colleagues were already drunk or well on their way to becoming that way certainly helped me to disguise my normally tone-deaf singing!)
Possibly spurred on by that infamous tune, right around the time when this song was at the height of popularity the central government started to put in place numerous reforms which did start to cause the length of Japan’s average workweek to decrease.
Regulation Led to Reform
Japanese businesses did not, however, reduce the number of hours that their loyal associates clocked in every week simply out of the goodness of their hearts. It required some nudging through regulation.
Legal Milestones
Soon after the end of World War II a cap on the workweek of 48 hours was legislated in 1947 as part of the Labor Standards Law. It took until 1987 for this law to be revised with the new goal of limiting the workweek to only 40 hours, which would be more in-line with developed countries in the West. It took until 1993 for the revised law to finally start to achieve some results.
In 2018 legislation was passed to impose further restrictions on employers as part of another campaign of the central government called Anata no Kaisha no Hatarakikata Kaikaku (あなたの会社の働き方改革), which means “Reforming the Way Your Company Works.” Having entered into force since April 2019, now the Labor Standards Law strictly regulates working hours and caps overtime. Details include the following:
Employees cannot be required to perform overtime exceeding 100 hours in any one month, or 720 hours a year;
Employers must record employees’ working hours;
Employers are encouraged to set a minimum daily rest period;
Employers must monitor employee’s uptake of paid annual leave and will have to designate five days of leave for employees with at least 10 days’ unused annual leave; and
Employers must aim to reduce differences in working conditions between full-time and part-time workers.
While these steps are, undoubtedly, a step in the right direction, it remains to be seen whether they will curb ongoing issues.
Remaining Problems
Although the intention of the most recent amendments to the Labor Standards Law was, at a minimum, to curb the most extreme cases, there is still plenty of room for improvement.
The phenomenon of karoshi (過労死) or “death from overwork” is now recognized around the world. It has been cited in the Oxford English Dictionary since 2002.
Karoshi — Death from Overwork
This term first appeared in the Japanese media in the 1970s to describe work-related stress that, ultimately, leads to death from cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases.
Compensation is awarded to the families of approximately 250 karoshi victims each year. While most people conjure up an image of an overworked, white-collar salaryman when they think of karoshi, almost all of the cases involve long-distance truck drivers.
The most recent updates to the Labor Standards Law actually specifies something called the karoshi line (過労死ライン). It is the point at which the risk of death or illness has been defined due to excessive fatigue. It is the standard used to demonstrate that overwork is the cause of an illness and certify such behavior as a work-related injury. Under the law, overtime work in excess of "100 hours in the month prior to the onset of illness" or "an average of 80 hours in the two to six months prior to the onset of illness" can be recognized as a relationship between work and the onset of illness.
The firm that I managed never had any employees who would consistently put in this amount of overtime, although every once and a while there would be one or two (out of approximately 100) who would get close to the legal limit. Such cases would typically involve some sort of a project with an aggressive deadline. The director of human relations and I would check each month for any worrisome trends. If necessary, we would take action to reduce the need for so much over-time to ensure the health of our associates and, naturally, to remain in compliance with the law.
100 or even 80 hours of overtime in any single month is quite a lot of extra time on the job. Thus, most firms still have plenty of room in which to stay in compliance. There are, however, some unscrupulous companies that continue to operate without regards to the legal limits of the number of hours that a worker should be clocking.
Black Kigyo — Rogue Employers Demand Too Many Hours
The Japanese term buraku kigyo (ブラック企業) or “black company” is a generic term for a business that exploits its workers. These firms do not comply with the legal protections of workers, often demand very long working hours and/or excessive quotas, and frequently do not pay overtime. Cases of sexual and power harassment are common. Wages tend to be low, and turnover is often high. These firms are, essentially, modern-day sweat shops.
When a company is described as being “black” in Japanese, it may mean that working conditions are severe, although the particular firm may not, in fact, be breaking any rules. There are, however, plenty of real cases.
The Ministry of Health, Labor & Welfare publishes a list of violators each year. As of July 2020 a total of 2,455 companies had at some point been shamed by appearing on this list. There are typically more than 400 cases actively under investigation at any point. These are, moreover, only the known cases for which there were registered complaints.
While black kigyo may be on the extreme end of troublesome employment practices in Japan which often lead to an extremely long workweek, cases of mental stress caused by power harassment are, unfortunately, fairly common.
Bullying on the Job Hinders Ability to Take Time off
Power harassment in Japan—particularly in the healthcare sector--often centers around discrimination of women regarding requests to take time off for maternity, childcare, and nursing care leave. Charges of sexual harassment often accompany such claims.
A government survey conducted in October 2020 asked respondents whether they had experienced power harassment, sexual harassment, or an inappropriate comment from a customer at their place of work during the past three years. The percentage of those who had experienced each type of harassment at least once was 31.4% for power harassment, 15.0% for problems with customers, and 10.2% for sexual harassment.
Among female workers who became pregnant while working in the past five years, 26.3% responded that they were subjected to harassment during their pregnancy and/or after returning from childcare leave. The percentage of respondents who experienced negative words and actions regarding pregnancy, childbirth, etc. before becoming pregnant in the past five years was 17.1%. In addition, 26.2% of male workers who attempted to use childcare-related systems in the past five years responded that they had experienced harassment related to childcare leave. The percentage of respondents who experienced sexual harassment while job-hunting or during an internship was 25.5%.
These numbers are high and indicate that bullying at work is real.
Despite these ongoing challenges, to date significant progress has been made to reduce the length of the average workweek in Japan. There is still room for improvement, but further reduction of hours is, most likely, going to become more and more difficult.
Outlook — Keep Reducing Hours While Boosting Productivity
While continuing to make progress to aim for a healthier work-life balance, Japanese employers and workers should simultaneously focus on what actually gets done on the job with an eye toward improving productivity.
Learn from Experiments to Dramatically Shorten the Workweek
In the West working 5 days per week from Monday through Friday is still standard operating procedure, as it is in Japan. Lately there have, however, been some highly publicized experiments to try to lop off another whole day from this schedule.
Take, for example, what is happening in Iceland.
Emulate the Proposed 4 Day Workweek in Iceland
The Reykjavík City Council and the Icelandic national government conducted a series of trials between 2015 and 2019 to test the efficacy of a shorter workweek. The trials involved 66 workplaces composed of approximately 2,500 people, roughly equivalent to 1% of Iceland's working population. A wide variety of industries were included in the trial that had workers shifting from a traditional 40-hour workweek to a 35- or 36-hour weekly schedule--with no cut in pay.
The media made much of how during at least part of the trial some of the participants switched to a 4-day workweek along with a 3 day weekend. To do that consistently would have meant reducing the workweek by 7 to 8 hours. That did not happen over the course of the entire trial period. The maximum reduction for the whole trial was only 4 hours. In 61 of the 66 sites the reduction was only 3 hours.
While the much publicized 4-day work week was not achieved in aggregate, overall the trial resulted in a reduction of 35 minutes per week in the private sector and 65 minutes in the public sector. Like Icelandic workers, Japanese workers would, most likely, certainly welcome another hour or so of free time without a reduction in pay.
A similar trial was conducted by Microsoft in Japan a couple of years ago.
Study the Trial of a 4 Day Workweek at MicroSoft Japan
In August 2019 all 2,300 employees at MicroSoft Japan were given 5 Fridays off in a row as part of an initiative called “Work-Life Choice Challenge Summer 2019.” The initial results proved successful from a number of perspectives. Specific achievements were as follows:
25.4% decrease in working days per month (compared to August 2018)
58.7% decrease in the number of pages printed per month (compared to August 2016)
Ratio of 30-minute meetings increased by 46% (compared to August 2018)
Ratio of remote meetings increased by 21% (compared to April to June 2019)
Personal collaboration increased by 10% (compared to August 2018)
MicroSoft Japan allowed its workers to continue the trial during the summer of 2020.
Other Japanese firms including Fast Retailing (Uniqlo), Yahoo, Mizuho Financial Group, and Recruit Holdings have been experimenting with similar initiatives.
Like staff at a hospital, some companies are now providing their associates with the option of picking the 3 days per week to take off as “personal holidays” rather than requiring that all vacation time be taken as a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
The ongoing global pandemic and the government’s encouragement to promote telework is, undoubtedly, going to help make it possible for more companies to reduce the amount of time their employees spend in the office. Still firms must make an effort to ensure that their associates do not feel like they are constantly on call—even when at home no matter the day and time.
Another approach would be to keep the standard 5 day/week schedule but adjust the number of hours worked each day. Back in 2015 Sweden conducted a landmark study that entailed having workers only put in 6 hours of work per day but get paid for 8 hours of labor.
Learn from the 6 Hour Experiment in Sweden
This controlled experiment took place at the Svartedalens Retirement Home in Gothenburg. The results indicated that workers who were only on the job for 6 hours per day were 64% more productive than the control group. The quality of care provided was also better. The 6 hour group took about 50% less time off due to illness and also reported that they were happier on the job.
Utilize Shorter Shifts and/or Daily Pay
While not every position may be suited for this approach, there are lots of jobs—even outside of manufacturing and distribution--that do not require someone to be working from “9 to 5.” Particularly due to the post-Covid (or at least the first stage of Covid) tight labor market in the U.S, employers are recruiting for workers to fill half-shifts. Such an approach may be particularly appropriate for elderly workers in Japan.
Similarly, the gig economy is providing opportunities for people with extra time on their hands to work intermittent day jobs and get paid on the same day via a mobile app. These apps, such as Stint in the U.K, Instawork and Gigpro in the U.S, help to match available labor with spot gigs. Already more than 2 million Japanese workers use a similar service called Timee.
Maybe there is something to this. While the jury is still out on which combination works best for each firm, the main take-away is that there are now proven, viable alternatives to the standard 5 day workweek based upon an 8 hour schedule. Time on the job is, however, not the most important factor to consider. It’s what gets done—or does not get done—that counts more.
Measure Productivity vs. Hours Worked
Given Japan’s proven track record as the master of production efficiency and continuous improvement, known as kaizen (改善) in Japanese, improving productivity should come naturally for the Japanese. Although this may be the case for production line workers, Japan’s white collar workers still have a reputation for wasting a lot of time at work.
Automate Non-Value-Added, Repetitive Tasks
To boost productivity, it almost goes without saying that “low hanging fruit” would, most likely, be non-value-added, repetitive tasks that were often performed by hand in the past. There is, however, still a lot of this type of “work” performed in Japan and much of it involves paper-based record keeping.
Although the central government is now on a mission to do away with the antiquated inkan (印鑑) or personal seal, which is used to register one’s approval on all sorts of forms—many of which often need to be completed in triplicate--converting to the electronic signature is not going to happen overnight.
Empowering workers to conduct their own kaizen events to weed out such non-valued-added, repetitive tasks would provide a real sense of purpose. It would definitely help to boost productivity in the long run. At the firm that I ran we had a monthly contest with cash prizes to encourage all of our associates to suggest more efficient ways of working. It was particularly inspirational for all associates to see how the most seemingly mundane ideas could often be implemented easily to yield real savings fairly quickly.
While people in sales already tend to be paid for performance, most “back office” associates are still primarily compensated based upon the number of hours that they clock-in. There has got to be a better way.
Compensate for Productivity
Not every compensation scheme can be converted to a method based on achievement of certain milestones vs. an hourly rate. Perhaps, however, a greater proportion of the overall compensation program for certain associates could be changed to some form of payment for productivity.
A corollary to such an approach would be to hire and fill positions based upon aptitude vs. seniority.
Focus on Job Descriptions vs. Reliance on Seniority
Candid assessments based upon how well a particular candidate matches the requirements of the job description should trump years on the job. In my experience, first Japanese companies still need to develop accurate job descriptions for many positions.
While flexibility and a willingness to contribute as a team member are vital for associates at any company, the desire to maintain the practice of being able to assign any employee—particularly lower-level associates—to virtually any task at any time seems to be preventing Japanese companies from developing and using job descriptions effectively. There are ways to prepare a job description to ensure that an employee does not simply announce one day “That’s not my job.”
Job description clarity would, conversely, help to focus attention where it is needed most and, in turn, boost productivity.
How best to measure contribution to the success of the overall enterprise is another area which could be improved to increase productivity.
Use Alternative Indices to Measure Progress
As is often the case, there is much to learn from Scandinavia. These countries have pioneered the use of alternative methods of measuring the degree to which associates contribute to the success of their business to augment the tried and true methods of tracking financial performance.
The Happiness Index would, for example, be a good place to start. For almost a decade the World Happiness Report, which is based on the Gallup World Poll, has provided meaningful data and insights into many aspects of what is important for workers. It should be possible to incorporate some of these metrics to help employees reduce stress and achieve a more equitable work-life balance.
Recalling Harry Kraemer’s fixation with the number 168, which is the limited number of hours available each week to everyone, the Japanese are currently averaging about 46 out of 168 hours on the job. The proportion is trending lower, but it may be difficult to squeeze out more time from the office to be applied to the remaining balance. That said, there are some promising ideas for making at least some incremental improvements. More importantly, the Japanese can and should continue to experiment with ideas to make the workplace more productive which, in turn, will lead to a healthier work-life balance.
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