Tokyo launches short working week to give civil servants more time to dedicate to sex

At work for only four days, with a long break that also includes Friday. In Tokyo, the short working week has a very specific objective: give civil servants the chance to have more sex. To combat the rapid decline in fertility rates, and improve the balance between work and private life, the capital’s administrators have introduced a measure which, starting from April 2025, will allow those who work more time to have sexual relations without protected. Will it work? Of course, nothing prevents you from dedicating your free time to other things: a trip, sport, meetings with friends. But the capital’s administration would really prefer that the time available be used for making love and reproducing.

And there’s more. The new decision would also aim to offer future parents more free time to raise a child. A collateral measure approved by the Japanese government, however, allows parents of children up to the third grade to give up part of their salary and leave work early. Not much, considering that these are models already widely adopted in other parts of the world and not necessarily to deal with birthrate problems.

“We will review work styles in the name of flexibility, so that no one is forced to give up their career due to the birth of children or their care,” said Yuriko Koike, mayor of Tokyo. “Now is the time to take the initiative to protect and improve the lives, livelihoods and economies of citizens during these challenging times for the nation,” he added.

Japan has made many pro-fertility moves of late in a bid to boost its birth rates, which have seen a precipitous decline for many years, reaching another record low in June. Local governments introduced various measures to encourage young people to marry and start families, while also improving working conditions so that people could have more time to devote to the idea of ​​starting a family.

Just 727,277 births were registered last year, with the fertility rate – the number of children a woman has in her lifetime – falling to a new record low of 1.2, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. Welfare. For a population to remain stable, a fertility rate of 2.1 is required.

In early 2023, the Japanese government made it easier for men to take paternity leave, although many refrained from taking it for fear of retaliation from their employers. Japan has an intense work culture that many of its citizens see as an obstacle to family rather than the engine that helps foster and support it.
As he highlights CNNJapanese companies often equate time spent at work with loyalty to the company, and the idea of ​​a short week is still seen, by many, as radical.
However, Tokyo is not the only place in Asia to implement more family-friendly policies. Earlier this year, Singapore introduced new guidelines requiring all companies to consider employee requests for flexible working arrangements. This could include four-day weeks or new, more parent-friendly times.