Japan: Tokyo offers four-day work week to ‘boost fertility'

Tokyo: The governor of Tokyo aims to implement a four-day workweek for government staff in the capital as part of a nationwide effort to support working mothers and address record-low fertility rates.

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The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has announced a new policy starting in April that could allow employees to enjoy a three-day weekend each week. In a separate initiative, parents with children in grades one to three of elementary school will have the option to leave work early in exchange for a slight reduction in their salary.

“We will review work styles … with flexibility, ensuring no one has to give up their career due to life events such as childbirth or childcare,” said Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike when she unveiled the plan in a policy speech on Wednesday.

To make work-life balance easier for parents, Yuriko Koike wants to offer civil servants employed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government the option to work a truncated week beginning in April.

"Lagging behind in women's empowerment is Japan's long-standing issue, and overcoming the status quo and making society more diverse and prosperous is key for our bright future," Yuriko Koike said.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has called Japan's stubbornly low birth rate a "quiet emergency" and has pledged policies like flexible working hours.

The expectation that working mothers should still shoulder domestic burdens, raise children and care for relatives is believed to be a key factor behind the dearth of babies.

Under the plan, government staff except shift workers may take up to three days off weekly, but will still need to complete 155 hours per month, Sachi Ikegami, a Tokyo Metropolitan Government official in charge of personnel affairs told AFP on Wednesday.

Employees raising young children will also be offered more flexible hours, with work days shortened by up to two hours, Ikegami added.

A four-day workweek is rare in Japan but gradually catching on in local governments seeking to strengthen support for parents.

While many developed countries are struggling with low birth rates, the problem is particularly acute in Japan where the population has declined for 15 straight years.

It has the world's second-oldest population after Monaco, and its relatively strict immigration rules mean it faces growing labour shortages.

Koike, a former minister and television anchor who has governed one of the world's biggest cities since 2016, won a third term in July on vows to boost Tokyo's social welfare benefits while acknowledging challenges like inflation and the plummeting birth rate.

Her administration plans to submit a draft proposal on the flexible working hours to the Tokyo assembly next year.