While much of Japan continues to debate the pros and cons of remote working, one of the country’s largest employers has made up its mind — and it could be a bad sign for the office sector.
Fujitsu Ltd said that it would cut its office space in Japan by 50 percent over the next three years, encouraging 80,000 office workers to primarily work from home in what it termed a “work-life shift for the new normal.”
“We will change the conventional concept of workers commuting to a fixed office and, through high autonomy and mutual trust between employees, deliver value to clients,” Fujitsu said in a statement.
Photo: Reuters
The plan calls for a ￥5,000 (US$464) a month stipend for workers to set up their home office environment in lieu of an existing commuting allowance and turning all existing offices to “hot-desking,” an approach that many offices are discouraging to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Fujitsu is Japan’s 17th-largest publicly traded employer, according to Bloomberg data, with almost 130,000 workers in total.
Factory employees would not be affected by the move, the company said.
Fujitsu also recently made headlines as the maker of the world’s fastest supercomputer, named Fugaku, which is being used to help identify potential COVID-19 treatments and predict the flow of droplets that can carry the virus.
While some of Fujitsu’s initiative could be driven by marketing concerns — the company sells technology that supports remote working — it does not augur well for Japan’s office sector in a post-COVID-19 world.
Many traditionally minded companies have called for employees to return to their offices, but face resistance among their staff.
A survey conducted in May by the Japan Productivity Center found that more than 60 percent of those questioned wanted to continue working remotely even after the pandemic is contained.
Fujitsu is the second major company in recent days to bow to that sentiment.
Snack maker Calbee Inc introduced a system for its 800 office workers to work from home full-time, with no obligation to travel to the office. It expects about 30 percent of its staff to go to the office.
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