Remote work? Japan isn’t sold
As much of the world embraces the joys of sweatpants at work, video calls and lunchtime laundry breaks, Japan looks to be charting a different course. Remote work? Nice idea, but it’s not for everyone.
Earlier this year, Rakuten Insight – Rakuten’s consumer research arm with around 2.2 million registered monitors – quizzed 1,000 people from around Japan on how they actually want to work*1. The survey targeted company employees, executives and public servants aged 20 to 69 and yielded some answers that might surprise anyone following global trends.
Most of Japan still loves the office
Asked about their ideal work style, an overwhelming 71.1% of respondents revealed that they would rather work primarily in the office. Just 12% opted for a hybrid style and only 9.4% showed a preference for working primarily from home.
Breaking the results down by age, younger adults emerged as the group most keen to commute. 81% of men and 78% of women in their 20s picked the office as their preferred workplace, with the desire for remote work growing steadily with age. Whether it’s about building career connections or escaping tiny Tokyo apartments, young workers in Japan are showing up.
The findings put Japan somewhat at odds with the rest of the world – global surveys have found that as many as 91% of workers look positively upon remote work, citing better work-life balance, less time commuting and more autonomy. For many employers, offering workstyle flexibility has become a major selling point.
But it’s far from the only area in which Japan’s workplace culture stands out: Face-time, team harmony, and in-person communication still hold significant weight for local companies. For many in Japan, the office remains the very beating heart of one’s work life — not to mention a welcome boundary between home and work.
How about a four-day workweek?
At the same time, not everyone in Japan is eager to clock in Monday through Friday. Despite an overwhelming majority of workers wanting to commute to the office, it seems that many wouldn’t mind going in a little less.
Starting in April 2025, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government – one of Japan’s largest employers – is allowing workers to take three days off each week, with further policies for parents of young children. According to the Rakuten Insight survey, quite a few people are on board with the idea.
Quizzed on what kind of workplace policies they would like to see implemented in their own companies, the four-day workweek emerged as the clear winner, chosen by 38.5% of respondents. Support was particularly strong among women in their 30s (51%), while men in their 20s showed the least enthusiasm (28%).
Curiously, only around half of respondents were aware of the Tokyo initiative. Among those who were, just over half (51.1%) actively supported it, citing reasons such as increased family time, room for hobbies, better mental and physical health, and greater overall flexibility.
While just 5.9% expressed opposition to the idea, their reasons given were anything but irrational. Many worry that such a policy might lead to reduced income, unchanged workloads squeezed into fewer workdays or a deeper crunch for an already stretched labor force.
Same desk, fewer days, please
Rakuten Insight’s findings paint a mixed but intriguing picture: Yes to the train commute, but maybe not five days a week.
So why isn’t Japan embracing remote work with the gusto of the wider world? Is the office too important a social hub? Or is the line between life at work and life at home just too sacred to blur?
All the while, workers are showing interest in working smarter, but not longer. As Tokyo tests the waters with its four-day workweek, the rest of Japan – and onlookers abroad – will be watching closely to see how it unfolds.
*1 Data from Rakuten Insight’s “Survey on Working Styles,” conducted January 31-Feb. 4, 2025, among 1,000 Japanese employees, executives, and public servants aged 20-69.
https://insight.rakuten.co.jp/report/20250318/ (*Japanese page)
