Working 4 days a week to have children: the new schedule of Tokyo residents (5 photos)

Yes, a 4-day workweek will be introduced in Tokyo. But only for government employees, because commercial firms cannot be forced to do so easily even at the state level. But it will be possible to assess how much this will solve the birth rate catastrophe and expand the program throughout the country.





You know what's interesting about Japan? There are still a lot of folders on the desks of employees there

Is it because there is no time?

In April, not only a 4-day workweek will be introduced. There will also be a system in place where parents with children in grades one through three in elementary school will be able to "sacrifice part of their salary" for the opportunity to leave work early. Sounds a bit suspicious, how much?

But the whole point is that the killer overtime and "stay at work until 10 pm" work styles are killing the personal lives of the already not-so-sociable Japanese. No matter how much good you do, company loyalty is measured in hours spent at work.



I don't like the Japanese corporate culture of identical black suits, like cockroaches

Which sounds crazy in itself, but - not in Japan.

And now many people can't afford to support a wife and child alone, and such early exits and shortened weeks will help women not to give up their careers for the sake of raising children.

And still not worse than in South Korea

The birth rate in Japan has been falling rapidly for many years. But in June it reached another record low, despite all the new government programs to encourage marriage and dating (they even paid money if you got married in the village, but not a single girl wanted to).





In a sense, a famous family, since it was the only one to have a child in a village where no one had children for 25 YEARS

Last year, only 727,277 births were registered. The fertility rate - the number of children that the average Japanese woman gives birth to in her lifetime - fell to a new low of 1.2. In Korea, by the way, in 2023 it was 0.73. Ours is not much higher than Japan now, 1.41. For the population to remain stable, a fertility rate of 2.1 is needed.

The "Now or Never" Program

The Japanese government is a little panicky because the current generation is the only one that can reverse the demographic crisis, then there will be no one.

So they even introduced parental leave for men. The question is, where were you before?



Moreover, children in Japan are very independent, they go home on their own from elementary school

In general, sociologists call the work culture in Japan merciless and blame it for the fact that people do not have children. Women often find themselves under pressure to choose between career and family, but Japan's unique culture of long hours makes pregnancy and parenting especially daunting.

The country's gender gap in labor force participation, which was 55% for women and 72% for men last year, is WAY higher than other high-income countries.



Have you seen the movie Children of Men? Where did people stop having children altogether?

Would you have a child if you had a 4-day week? Or is it unrelated and the Japanese have missed the mark again?