Japan yesterday launched a scheme to promote “telework,” or working from home, in an effort to ease congestion when Tokyo hosts the 2020 Olympics, as well as soften a notoriously rigid work culture.
Almost 930 companies, including Suntory Beverage & Food Ltd, Ajinomoto Co and Tokyu Construction Co are participating in “Telework Day,” to be held on July 24 each year from now until the Olympics opening ceremony, which is set for July 24, 2020.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government has introduced policies to shorten working hours, raise contract workers’ pay, and curb abuse of labor laws.
Telework could be another way to reform working practices that some say are behind the times.
“Once the Olympics start it will be hard to get to work, so we are doing this as an experiment,” Ricoh Institute of Sustainability and Business president Takashi Kozu, 61, said. “The lifestyles of younger generations are changing, so firms should offer alternative work styles to maintain employees’ incentive.”
Kozu said he worked from home yesterday morning, planned to attend an off-site meeting in the afternoon and would not show up in the office until early evening.
Telework is more common in other countries, especially in the information technology sector, where employees regularly use teleconferencing or log on from the neighborhood cafe.
However, it has been slow to catch on in other industries in Japan, partly because firms have put a lot of emphasis on being physically present at the office, often for 12 hours or more.
However, Japan Inc is starting to change its ways and introduce more flexible work hours. As the population ages, the labor force is shrinking at an alarming rate, and a hard-driving work culture makes it difficult to attract and retain workers.
Some companies are starting to realize that long, inflexible hours of work actually keep labor productivity low.
In some cases Japan’s working culture can be fatal, and it is not uncommon for workers to commit suicide or suffer a stroke because of excessive hours.
“We are doing this for the Olympics, but the long-term goal is to have more humane working conditions,” said Hiroshi Ohnishi, a planner at the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, which is promoting “Telework Day.”
“In the past, working long hours was considered a virtue, but this thinking will not hold up in the future,” he said.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS