Tokyo offers 4-day working week for young couples – for an additional fee

Oh baby!

Tokyo is offering employees a four-day working week in a bid to boost the city’s birth rate.

Governor Yuriko Koike recently announced that starting in April 2025, government employees in the city will have the option to enjoy a three-day weekend.

Another new policy would allow parents with elementary school children to leave work early in exchange for a pay cut.

Japan’s fertility rate has hit record lows for the 16th year in a row, as the world’s largest city launches a revolutionary policy aimed at encouraging couples to have children.

The number of babies born in Tokyo fell by more than 15% between 2012 and 2022.

The four-day experiment in Tokyo follows numerous studies and trials showing that shortening the working week would bring a long list of benefits to companies and their employees.

Similar plans have been implemented in other parts of Japan.

According to NBC, Koike Yuriko said in a policy speech at the 4th regular session of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, “We will flexibly review work methods to ensure that no one gives up their career due to life events such as childbirth or childcare. career.”

“At a challenging time for the country, now is the time for Tokyo to take proactive action to protect and improve the lives, livelihoods and economy of our people,” Yuriko Koike said.

In 2023, Japan’s fertility rate has dropped to an estimated 1.2 children per woman in her lifetime; experts claim the country needs this number to be at least 2.1 to keep its population stable.

Experts believe the declining birth rate is partly due to Japan’s stressful work culture. The country even has a word called “death from overwork”—— death from overwork – This often forces women to choose between career and family.

The country has the largest gender gap in labor force participation of any high-income country — 55% for women and 72% for men last year, according to the World Bank.

As more Japanese women continue to choose to focus on career rather than family, the country has struggled with labor shortages and the highest proportion of elderly people in the world.

To combat this ongoing problem, Japan is offering cash incentives for large families, tax breaks, creating more daycare centers, and even launching a government-funded dating app that requires users to promise that their purpose in using the app is to get married. .