Japan is set to implement a four-day work week as part of a broader effort to address its declining birth rates and aging population. The country’s capital, Tokyo, will take the lead in this experiment, aiming to improve work-life balance and encourage higher birth rates.
Starting in April next year, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, one of the largest employers in Japan, will reduce the workweek to four days. The new policy will be coupled with a “child care partial leave” initiative, allowing parents to work two hours fewer per day. Together, these measures are designed to ease the burden on working parents while promoting family life, which the government hopes will encourage more births.
This new policy comes after Japan’s birth rate reached a record low in 2024. In the first half of the year, new births were 5.7% lower than the same period in 2023. The Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare reported that 350,074 babies were born between January and June 2024. The national fertility rate stands at 1.2, well below the 2.1 rate needed to sustain a stable population. In Tokyo, the fertility rate is even lower, at 0.99. By comparison, the median age of a Japanese citizen is 49.9 years, much higher than that of the United States at 38.9 years. This aging population has prompted the government to take urgent measures.
Japan has long struggled with low birth rates, despite a range of policies aimed at reversing the trend. Since the 1990s, initiatives such as longer parental leaves, subsidized daycare, and cash payments to parents have been introduced. The government has even launched dating apps to help singles find spouses. Yet, these efforts have not been enough to curb the decline in births.
The new four-day workweek policy is seen as an attempt to address some of the root causes of low birth rates, particularly Japan’s intense work culture. Women, in particular, face a disproportionate burden of unpaid labor, performing five times more domestic work than men. The reduced workweek is expected to help bridge this gap, making it easier for women to balance work and family life.
Evidence from other countries suggests that shorter workweeks can lead to increased productivity and higher employee satisfaction. The hope is that by providing more time for childcare and family responsibilities, both men and women will be more inclined to have children, leading to an eventual boost in the birth rate.
