Japan promotes 5-day workweek

The government plans to promote a five-day workweek for construction workers involved in public works projects as part of its work-style reform initiative. Construction workers tend to work more than five days a week because many are under pressure to complete projects faster. Less than 10 percent of construction projects in the country see workers take eight days off over a four-week period.

The ministry will pay up to 5 percent more in labor costs for state-managed public works projects in which workers take two days off per week, to prevent a dip in construction incomes due to the shortened workweek.

The construction industry faces an urgent need to improve its working environment to attract younger workers because many older workers are set to retire in the near future. Of all skilled construction workers in the country, those between the ages of 15 and 29 account for only 11 percent, compared with 25 percent for those 65 or older.

In a speech, Rengo President Rikio Kozu criticized the planned introduction of a system to exempt high-income specialist jobs, such as research and consultant positions, from work hour regulations. The system planned under the bill “was originally aimed at preventing overwork deaths, but it now includes something totally different,” Kozu said.