Can Japan's New '4 Day Work Week' Save Them From Extinction?

[@Fads]

Thanks for watching!! As always, this is edited from one of my streams here on YT (7.30pm Eastern, picking back up next week on Fri). Just some extra context: - The policy is for Tokyo govt staff (160k people tho, so it’s a decent chunk of Tokyo’s workforce). A few other prefectures and regions have announced similar plans too. - Japan’s 2018 work reforms also ‘encouraged’ the private sector to adopt more flexible working solutions lmao. I bet you can imagine how that’s going. - The 69hr workweek is probably like #47 on the list of wild stuff the SK president has said/done lol. - Also apologies for shoddy pronunciation of Japanese words

[@ChiekoGamers]

It works, but it's a band aid solution. We should be working less than 32-hours per week. We should fix our work culture. These huge corporations are boasting record profits yet our wages remain the same.

[@meru_lpz]

Idk about your country, but in my country (spain) our companies spend in a wage double what the worker receives. In other word, the state takes half the wage before it even reaches the worker. Is the wages remaining the same solely the fault of corporations? In my experience, taxes and regulations are the biggest culprit. And these state-imposed costs always get passed on to the worker and the consumer.

[@maksimfedoryak]

​@@meru_lpzbelieve, if government will decrease taxes, corporations will not increase wages on next month

[@meru_lpz]

@ I agree. What im saying is, if taxes like IRPF decreased here, companies could keep paying the exact same (gross pay) and we could have higher wages (net pay).

[@Bkaz3678]

Maybe low wages also factor into why people feel the need to work so much?

[@alimfuzzy]

I would think samsung employees didn't take up the 4-day work week is that it would make them the most likely to be fired at the next job cuts. It's not loyalty, it's fear.

[@TheNewRobotMaster]

I live in Japan. I also operated a company for 8 years. I thought I'd add a bit of context. 1) Except for the most egregious offences like murder and assault, laws in Japan are more like suggestions rather than things you shant do. Even if you don't follow them, you're unlikely to suffer any actual consequences. The most you'll get is a ticket. This applies to labour laws as well. I ran into this a lot with my business partner, as he would try to block me from implementing employee policies that followed the law. He would say "oh no no, nobody cares about that nothing is going to happen" and attempt to bleed our employees dry. 2) Why would my business partner do that? Because in his mind, those who don't give 100% by working the hardest, constantly, every day, will be cut from the company before anybody else. Japan's office jobs and other skilled positions are extremely competitive. Employees know this. They also know they just have to stick it out long enough because promotion is usually done by seniority. Therefore, in an effort to maintain their jobs, they will actively work endlessly. Nobody _wants_ to work like this, but they do not because of social pressure or shame, but because they fear they will lose their livelihoods. 3) One of the only laws that's actually actively enforced is that companies can't fire "salaried employees", contingent on the fact that the employee does everything they're told to do, even if they make mistakes. Even then, companies are obligated to provide extra chances and training over a long period to remedy the mistakes. To get around this, there have been two main strategies: 1) no longer hire employees, but make all people who work for the company "contractors", who have severely fewer protections (also companies don't have to match pension and health insurance payments for contractors) and 2) make the lives of those employees so terrible that they quit of their own volition. 4) There has been a noticable drop in passed out office workers in public. I can't even remember the last time I saw one. There's also been successful movements to get less rigid working conditions. For example, just last year all major supermarkets implemented policies that allowed people to have coloured hair, wear makeup and earrings, or have facial hair (surprising as it might be most major companies required all men to be clean shaven every single day). There has also been improvements to working conditions in general, "customer harassment" also became a topic of discussion with policies now in place to prevent irate customers from venting their frustrations on workeks, typically low level staff who work the registers. But these policies come less as a response to an increasing difficulty in finding employees for low level jobs. 5) I think it's important to realize that when people do have children, they tend to have at least 2. I personally know many families with 3, 4 and even 5 children in Tokyo. The problem is that fewer people are choosing to have any families at all. Things are changing and I do think improving overall. The concept of the "salaryman" worked great in the past but is no longer possible. For people starting to pay national pension today, they're going to get only 70000 yen per month on retirement, while the retirees who had company pension get 300000 yen today. I think a shrinking of the Japanese population will actually help out in the long run. Yes, absolutely everyone will be poorer but I think people will be happier. What's the point of life when all you do is work?

[@yohann2768]

32h work week should be the norm in developed countries.

[@sprinkle61]

I don't have enough income or hours. Solution - less income and less hours... What ?

[@SenatorFreddyQuimby]

But the CEO wants that lake house. Wont somebody think of the CEO's

[@alimfuzzy]

I think what you'll find is why this was originally proposed during covid. To increase spending. It's what happened when we moved to a 5 day work week. Huge boost to the economy.

[@monkeibusiness]

Humans were not made to work that much.

[@joels7605]

"People tend to have false memories." How true this is. Years gone by tend to turn into caricatures of themselves. I'm even noticing that in my own memories. The most noteworthy events and qualities are over-amplified, and the rest just fades into history.

[@AncelDeLambert]

I've come across SO much manga that has "Black Companies" (abusive, corrupt, illegal) as a keystone to the story that it's kinda shocking that it seems like the population at large just isn't overly concerned by the ongoing underlying issues that allow those companies to operate. Change is slow, for certain, but it still seems glacial

[@Sub0Kate]

I'd like to see a chart of percapita hours worked and birth rates for countries. It would have to include side hustles too, since that wouldn't show up in a "work week".

[@leponpon6935]

Actually, instead of 4 day work week, a 3 day work week would've been much better...although...at this point... it's too little too late...

[@Dumb-Comment]

we need this everywhere

[@GooseCee]

It’s so funny how Fads is covering intellectual topics but then uses Gen Z phrases like “they don’t wanna smash” 💀god I love this channel 😂

[@Aoki84]

I think they need to tackle this from multiple angles like what about the fact that so many japanese ppl fled the country?

[@seeblu]

yay more friends online in multiplayer games!!!

[@ilikegearsofwar3]

There is no extinction or “collapse”. Japan is an island that went from a few million to 120 million. It is natural to go back to a sustainable population. Work culture and social change aside

[@burtburtist]

i do want to see if it ever stabilizes or becomes a feedback loop of doom, but you might be right, reminds me of previous population booms and bottlenecks, unless we come up with the next medical innovation we capped off on booms for now, i wonder if we'l even reach a projected 10billion world population, or if we're overestimating the effects. maybe a small demographic collapse precedes another boom.

[@JeffBilkins]

What is it like for young parents in Japan? Do they still work? And is childcare, housing and having kids even affordable?

[@burtburtist]

tons of interview videos out here but from recent memory, its nowhere near worth it by the sound of it.

[@funkymunky]

Blowing bubbles into a hurricane...☹️

[@aaronogden9900]

It sounds like my idea of hell. I work 4 days a week/32hrs but I’d gladly do less. Work is boring and sucks, you only live once so you shouldn’t want to spend it all dying in slow motion doing crap to make someone else rich.

[@zachurich5046]

First to leave is first to get fired, real productivity be damned!

[@burtburtist]

the work days might not matter that much, the income, protections, enforcement, and stress matter more. or they will simply decide to cram 5 days worth of work in 4. i would like to imagine that if they were payed enough to support another person or two they may be encouraged to have stay at home wives/husbands, this gives people the opportunity to build families, it feels frustrating that bandaid solutions are the only ones proposed when they ask their own people why they wont start families and get direct responses.

[@armorbearer9702]

It sounds like Japan can change the law all they want, but changing the culture will take time.

[@smajliiicka]

South Korea govt suggested what?!? 🧐🥺

[@Da1its0Uf8oma]

first ask their government and central bank to stop printing money. Ask the companies to pay workers their wages. I don't think anyone cares about the people of Japan, including their government. If they really do, they would have taken steps to increase the workers' pay. for the past 15+ years population is declining, nothing is done to address this issue. Soon this will be the case around the world, where income inequality is high.

[@Darth_Bateman]

Didn’t they do this already? and most companies just refused with Fridays?

[@theholybear1094]

comment here to boost your video

[@ernestoglez6725]

6:39 just like exercise and steroids.

[@wiseturtule]

You should have a podcast. And I don't mean make special episodes on the podcast. Just upload the audio from these videos.

[@chelseashurmantine8153]

Unsubscribe

[@erseshe]

Oh, to do that, press the button next to the channel icon. Commenting 'unsubscribe' doesn't actually unsubscribe you. In fact, it's possible it may do it opposite, creating engagement and then further recommending videos even if you successfully find the unsubscribe button.

[@Al_Mosuli876]

Hmmmmmm