Il Tokyo Metropolitan Government will introduce, starting fromin April 2025have four-day work week for its 160.000 public employees. This is a major decision in a country known for its extremely rigorous work culture, to the point of having coined the term karoshi (“death from overwork”) to describe sudden deaths related toexcessive workloadThe initiative aims to counter the dramatic decline in births and improve the quality of life in a metropolis with over 12,5 million inhabitants.
The move comes amid ongoing population decline, with Japan headed for its 17th consecutive year of population decline.
Tokyo, a new work model is coming
La Governor Yuriko Koike announced the “four-on, three-off” model (four days of work and three days of rest), which will allow employees to choose a day of the week for personal activities. The goal is improve work-life balance, promoting a more inclusive environment, especially for women. “We don’t want women to have to sacrifice their careers for motherhood or child-rearing,” Koike said before the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly.
This measure is in addition to a existing flexible working hours system, which currently allows one day off every four weeks. The reform will introduce an additional day off every week, providing greater flexibility for workers.
Support for families: free nursery schools and flexible leave
Alongside the reduction in working days, the metropolitan government will offer free daycare for all preschool children starting in September. The goal is reduce the economic burden on families and encourage women to maintain their role in the labor market.
Furthermore, a partial childcare leave system, allowing workers to reduce their working hours by up to two hours a day.
Japan's Demographic Crisis: A Never-Ending Winter
Japan is facing a cunprecedented demographic growth, even more acute compared to the Italian one. In 2022, the number of births fell below 800.000, the lowest level since 1899, while deaths reached 1,58 million. Things went even worse in 2023, when the average birth rate per woman, calculated across the reproductive years, continued to decline for the eighth consecutive year, reaching a new record low. According to data released in June by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in Tokyo, the number of births of Japanese citizens residing in the country was 727.277 in 2023, down 5,6% from the previous year.
In parallel, the natural population decline has increased of 6,3%, leading to a net loss of 848.659 people. This negative trend, uninterrupted for 17 years, marks a drastic change from the 70s, when births exceeded two million.
While the slowdown in birth rates is a global phenomenon, Japan faces a particularly critical situation. Thelife expectancy has increased significantly, creating an increasingly aging population and a declining number of workers to support it. The total population, which in 2008 amounted to 128 million, dropped to 124,6 million and could halve by the end of the century. With a fertility rate that fell to 1,20 in 2023, well below the replacement level set at 2,1, the country faces a serious demographic imbalance. Currently, 29% of the population is over 65 years old, a fact that poses unprecedented challenges for the economy and society.
The previous prime minister, Fumio Kishida, had raised the alarm, warning: “Too few children: we are on the brink of paralysis”. To counter this crisis, Kishida had proposed doubling public spending on childhood programs and creating a dedicated government agency. With theinstallation of the new prime minister, Ishiba, the country is now facing the need to implement concrete measures to reverse a trend that threatens its future.
The short week in the world
Tokyo joins a global trend. Japanese prefectures like Ibaraki e Chiba they already have started similar projects, and cities like Cueshort week is being implemented for some categories of workers. Even outside Japan, several countries are experimenting with this model. In Iceland, the four-day week was introduced in 2015 with excellent results: increased productivity and greater well-being for employees. In Britain, in 2023, 61 companies tested the measure, and more than half adopted it permanently.
Similar experiments are underway in Europe in Spain, Belgium, Sweden, while outside the continent they have been started in United States and New Zealand. In addition to improving the quality of life of workers, these initiatives have shown environmental benefits, such as reducing pollution due to reduced travel.
Italy and local experiments
The in Italy some companies are experiencing the short work week. Between these, Intesa Sanpaolo, Team System, Mondelez International and Velvet Media are evaluating the benefits of a more flexible model, which could represent a revolution for the Italian labor market.
