The Japanese industrial group recently announced that it will start offering a third day off per week to those interested. “We must support the well-being of our employees,” president and group CEO Yuki Kusumi told investors in a briefing.
Panasonic hopes to give workers more time to pursue their personal interests, whether volunteering or a side job. Details will be ironed out by each operating company.
Just 8% of Japanese companies offered more than two guaranteed days off a week in a 2020 survey by the ministry of health, labour and welfare.
Those that do are usually looking to help workers meet the demands of their personal lives, like Yahoo Japan and Sompo Himawari Life Insurance, which began offering a third day off in 2017 only to those caring for children or ageing relatives.
But more companies are starting to see additional benefits to a four-day workweek. Shionogi, which is working on an oral Covid-19 treatment, will from April offer the option of a third day off per week.
It wants to give workers more time to learn new skills as it makes inroads into new business areas, like health care services.
Systems developer Encourage Technologies introduced a four-day workweek in April 2021. “Younger workers value their time off, so this gives us an edge when it comes to hiring,” the company said.
More than 60% of UK companies adopting a four-day workweek reported productivity improvements in a 2019 survey by the University of Reading.
When Microsoft Japan tested the idea in 2019, roughly 90% of workers responded favourably, and the company ended up saving on electricity.
In December 2020, Unilever began a trial of a four-day workweek at full pay in New Zealand. The company will consider expanding the option to other markets, depending on how it affects total work hours and productivity.
Despite the growing interest, fewer than 10% of Japanese companies have actually adopted the idea so far – largely because of logistical hurdles. Many workplaces here tie wages to the number of days worked, for example.
Workers also often hesitate to take more time off, worried that colleagues will have to pick up the slack.
Finding approaches suited to each employer and its workers will be key to popularising a shorter workweek.
Water treatment company Metawater, which adopted a four-day workweek in 2019, maintains pay levels by having people put in extra hours on the days they do come in.
Rice milling machinery maker Satake began granting the whole company a third day off per week during summers in 2017. But it now has workers alternate their time off in response to complaints from clients.
Japanese workers are putting in fewer hours than they used to, thanks to a nationwide push to reform the country’s notoriously demanding work culture. But Japan still ranks at the bottom of the Group of Seven in labour productivity.
Four-day workweeks are expected to be one of the keys to boosting productivity and improving work-life balance here. The government also said it will promote the concept under its latest guidelines for economic and fiscal policy, approved by the cabinet in June.