10 Pct of Japan Workers Want to Work Longer: Govt Survey

Tokyo, March 5 (Jiji Press)–A Japanese labor ministry survey showed Thursday that 10.5 pct of workers in the country want to work longer hours, including 0.5 pct who hope to work beyond the monthly overtime ceiling of 80 hours. Meanwhile, 30.0 pct hope to reduce their work hours, and 59.5 pct are satisfied with the status quo, according to the survey, which was conducted between October and December last year, receiving valid responses from 3,000 workers. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has signaled her intention to review labor restrictions based on the survey results. The survey also asked 327 companies about their employees’ work hours. Of them, 201 companies said that they want to maintain current levels, 73 said they want to reduce work hours, and 53 said they want to increase them. Companies hoping to reduce work hours cited reasons such as workload, employee health and the need to secure workers. Those wishing to increase work hours mentioned the nature of operations, the need to secure orders, and requests from employees. Of the 53 companies hoping to increase work hours, 25 said they want employees to work within the current overtime cap, while 17 said they want employees to exceed the restriction. Eleven companies wanted overtime to exceed 45 hours in six months per year. In Japan, work style reform-related legislation, including the overtime cap, began to take effect in April 2019. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]