A Japanese company banned late-night work, and a 'baby boom' followed
Japan
Masako Mori, a Japanese lawmaker and advisor to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida,warned earlier this yearthat “the country will disappear” if the falling birthrate problem persists. But, the Japanese company Itochu Corp chief’s counterintuitive approach might just have saved the country from facing the stark likelihood.
A case worth studying
Japanese work culture often involves spending gruelling hours at the office and then evenings eating and drinking with colleagues which has made starting a family challenging, especially for female workers. Therefore, many women leave the workforce after giving birth to take care of the kids.
This is where Itochu Corp, Chief Executive Officer Masahiro Okafuji’s approach comes in. When Okafuji took the top job in the company in 2010, one of his priorities was to improve productivity so that the Japan-based company could compete against bigger rivals, said a report by Bloomberg.
But despite contrary beliefs, in this case, increased productivity was not linked to spending long hours at the office. In fact, the Japanese company’s CEO banned working in the office after 8:00 pm (local time) and cancelled overtime, except for some rare cases.
Furthermore, security guards and human resources staff would take rounds of the Itochu’s office building in Tokyo, asking people to go home. Those who still insisted on finishing their work were told to come in early the next day to get it done and they would be paid extra.
Did it work?
The idea worked! Around 10 years or so later, the Japanese company reported over five times the profit per employee between 2010 and 2021, as per the report. Additionally, Itochu noted that the fertility rate among full-time employees doubled since Okafuji took over, with nearly two children per female employee by the end of March 31, 2022.
“We set out to boost productivity but had no idea it would have an impact on the birthrate,” Itochu’s executive vice president, Fumihiko Kobayashi told Bloomberg.
Notably, Japan’scurrent national fertility rate of about 1.3 is far below the 2.1 required to maintain a stable population. Another change that was noted during this time was that more employees took maternity leave, had their kids and came back to work, reported Bloomberg.
It was found that the company’s late-night work ban eased the pressure on female employees.
Additionally, after the pandemic Itochu also allowed employees to work from home two days a week. Last year, the Japan-based company took things one step further and cut down its working hours from eight to six which meant that people could clock out as early as 3:00 pm (local time).
Japan’s falling birthrate
Earlier this year, the Japanese government sounded the alarm after being faced with twin problems of a low birth rate and an ageing population.
According to estimates, the number of births in the country dropped below 800,000 in 2022 and while the forecasters had predicted this would happen, unfortunately, it happened eight years too soon.
WATCH WION LIVE HERE
You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.