As Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pushes for labor reforms, hopes are growing that it may alter Japan’s deep-rooted culture of…
TOKYO —
As Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pushes for labor reforms, hopes are growing that it may alter Japan’s deep-rooted culture of overwork and nudge more workers toward striking the right work-life balance.
The recent start of “Premium Friday,” an initiative led by the government and the private sector, is symbolic of Abe’s drive. It encourages employees to finish work earlier than usual on the last Friday of each month and to increase consumption—a soft spot in the deflation-hit economy.
Whether it will bear fruit remains to be seen. Changing the mindset of Japanese workers, and their habit of putting in long work hours, will be a critical and formidable challenge for Japan, according to economists.
“As much as it is a social issue, labor reform is an economic one in terms of shoring up the growth potential of the Japanese economy,” a government panel said in a report in March when it called for putting a cap on overtime work hours.
Abe left his office early to do “zazen,” or seated meditation, at a temple on Feb. 24 when the “Premium Friday” campaign began, and went to his vacation house outside of Tokyo on March 31, the second Premium Friday.
By finishing work at 3 p.m., government officials and economists hope, Japanese workers will loosen their purse strings and increase spending on weekend travel, entertainment and eating out.
According to recent government data, household spending on eating out marked a nearly 17 percent gain on Feb. 24 compared with the last Friday of February 2016. Average household spending, meanwhile, slipped an inflation-adjusted 3.8 percent in February, which had one less day than a year ago.
For the initiative to have a substantive effect on the economy, however, participation by more companies and spreading it beyond Tokyo to regional areas are seen as vital.
