Reform Ideal Archives - understand-culture

Work, Work, Work

On October 4, 2025, after winning the election for president of the Liberal Democratic Party, Takaichi Sanae said: Watashi jishin mo wāku raifu baransu to iu kotoba o sutemasu. Hataraite hataraite hataraite hataraite, hataraite mairimasu. I myself will throw away the word work-life balance. I will work, work, work, work and work.

In October 2025, as prime minister, she instructed her labor minister to consider easing the rules on working hours, on the premise of health and workers’ own choice. Yoshino Tomoko, head of Rengo, called this a reversal of the efforts to correct long working hours.

On December 1, 2025, the phrase won the grand prize of the year’s Buzzword Awards. Takaichi said it had drawn both praise and criticism. Two groups of families of people who had died from overwork protested the award at a press conference.

A Minister’s Paternity Leave

On January 15, 2020, Environment Minister Koizumi Shinjirō announced that he would take about two weeks of paternity leave in total over the three months after the birth of his first child. He said: Seido dake de naku, kūki mo kaete ikanakereba ikenai. Not only the system but also the air has to change.

He would take the leave flexibly, he said, on condition that official duties came first. J-Cast quoted an online critic who wrote that a minister’s pay comes from taxes and that his leave was different from that of a company employee.

Three Days Off in Tokyo

On December 3, 2024, in a policy speech, Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko announced that the metropolitan government would let its staff choose three days off a week from April 2025. She said: Tōkyō kara gēmu chenji o okosu. We will start a game change from Tokyo.

On April 1, 2025, she told the metropolitan staff: Shūkyū mikka-sei no dōnyū nado issō jūnan ni natta seido o katsuyō shite kudasai. Make use of the systems that have become more flexible, including three days off a week.

Fridays Off at Microsoft Japan

In August 2019, Microsoft Japan closed its offices on every Friday of the month, the 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th, as part of its Work-Life Choice Challenge 2019 Summer.

The company announced that labor productivity had risen 39.9 percent compared with August 2018.

Ikumen Project

On June 17, 2010, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare launched the Ikumen Project. Its aim was to build momentum in society so that working men could take a more active part in raising their children and take childcare leave.

The ministry defined an ikumen as a man who enjoys raising children and grows himself through it.

Premium Friday

On February 24, 2017, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry launched Premium Furaidē, Premium Friday. On the last Friday of each month, work was to end at 3 p.m., with no overtime.

The research company Intage surveyed about 2,200 working men and women aged 20 to 59 in the Tokyo area from February 24 to 27. It found that 3.7 percent had left early on the first Premium Friday.

No-Overtime Day

Some Japanese companies set one day a week as nō zangyō dē, no-overtime day. In a 2016 survey by the Fukuoka Labor Bureau, 148 of the 217 responding companies in the prefecture, 68 percent, had one. About 80 percent of them had chosen Wednesday, the day the Cabinet Office recommends.

The 2024 Problem

From April 2024, overtime for Japanese truck drivers was capped at 960 hours a year. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare warned that logistics could stagnate. It cited an estimate that, without countermeasures, transport capacity could fall 34 percent short by 2030.

The 36 Agreement

Under Article 36 of Japan’s Labor Standards Act, an employer may require overtime only after a written agreement with a representative of the majority of workers, filed with the labor standards office. It is called the saburoku kyōtei, the 36 agreement.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare explains that until the reform that took effect in April 2019 for large companies, the upper limit for such overtime had no penalty behind it. A special clause in the agreement allowed overtime with no upper limit at all.

A Cap on Overtime

Under a cap explained by a regional labor bureau of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, overtime in Japan is limited, as a rule, at 45 hours a month and 360 hours a year. Under special circumstances, the limits are 720 hours a year, and less than 100 hours a month including holiday work, with an average of no more than 80 hours over two to six months.

The cap applied to large companies from April 2019 and to small and medium-sized companies from April 2020. A violation can bring up to six months in prison or a fine of up to 300,000 yen.