Tag - overwork

 
 

OVERWORK

Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies / Regional voices: Chubu
Nov 29, 2019
Toyota group member Aisin Seiki cuts low-priority meetings, reducing work hours as a result
Aisin Seiki Co., a Toyota group auto parts maker based in Kariya, Aichi Prefecture, has set about conducting work-style reform, including abolishing dress codes and low-priority meetings to give its workers breathing room to come up with new ideas.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Nov 15, 2019
Foreign students in Japan hold back on applying for newly created visas due to past illegal overwork
Many foreign students in Nagoya have recently been found to be reluctant to apply for newly created visas intended to bring more workers from abroad, fearing their applications might not be accepted because they have been working more part-time hours than permitted for those with student visas.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 11, 2019
Do more with less: New Zealand firm sees huge productivity boost with four-day workweek
A New Zealand estate planning firm that made headlines when it trialed a four-day week last year has seen a big productivity increase since it made the change permanent, with staff spending less time surfing the internet.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Commentary
Nov 11, 2019
Four-day workweek could be just what Japan needs
In the sitcom "The Office," a bumbling manager spends much of his time distracting the hapless employees of a paper company's local sales branch. Somehow, despite all the antics that seem to interfere with getting anything done, the branch consistently manages to be the company's most profitable. Though...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 5, 2019
Four-day workweek boosted productivity by 40%, Microsoft Japan experiment shows
In a rare corporate experiment to test a four-day work system, Microsoft Corp.’s Japan branch found that their productivity improved by about 40 percent, the company said.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 9, 2019
Record 5,160 firms employing foreign trainees in Japan violated labor laws in 2018, ministry says
A record 5,160 business facilities employing foreign technical intern trainees were told in 2018 to correct practices that violated labor-related laws, the labor ministry has said.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 13, 2019
Working harder in a bid to save labor is proving exhausting
The utopia of utopias is "Utopia" by Sir Thomas More (1478-1535). Its best feature is leisure. There are no idle nobles; everyone works. A burden shared is a burden lightened. Utopians "do not wear themselves out with perpetual toil from morning to night, as if they were beasts of burden." They work...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Jul 5, 2019
Tourism boom and psychological stress behind Okinawa bus driver shortage
Local bus operators in Okinawa Prefecture are facing a serious shortage of drivers, which is attributed to increased demand amid a tourism boom and the physically and emotionally taxing nature of the profession.
EDITORIALS
Jun 2, 2019
Step up the fight against power harassment
Employers need to realize the gravity of the power harassment problem and make steady efforts to eliminate it.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
May 27, 2019
Behind the scenes of 24/7 service: The realities of 'owning' a Japanese convenience store
A familiar orange and green signboard glares in the pitch-dark, quiet street in a residential area. There, the owner of a 7-Eleven franchise store located in the suburbs of a small city in the Chubu region works the night shift every day by himself.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
May 8, 2019
Japan's labor shortage eats away at backbreaking work culture
When she worked in sales for a bank, Chihiro Narazaki was passed over for the best assignments in favor of older colleagues. Her input was discouraged and she often stayed late just to do routine paperwork.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Apr 15, 2019
China tech giant Jack Ma encourages workers to rack up overtime hours
Billionaire Jack Ma again encouraged tech workers to embrace the industry's extreme-overtime culture, defying a growing social media backlash.
EDITORIALS
Apr 10, 2019
Take steps to curb corporate workers' hours
While the government's new work-style reform measures mark a first step toward curbing the excessively long working hours of many corporate employees, it only sets the baseline from which each firm needs to make further efforts to cut employees' work hours.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?