Japan announced a four-day work week to combat the alarming decline in birth rates

The initiative that will be implemented in April next yearseeks to balance life labor and staffso that people can spend more time with their families, have more flexible schedules and reduce working hours for parents with young children.

The measure was promoted by the Governor Yuriko Koike and will allow municipal employees, excluding shift workers, to maintain a total of 155 working hours per month, according to local media The Japan Times.

“We will start with a comprehensive support to the balance between work and personal life, by introducing a more timetable system flexiblelike three days off per week,” he highlighted Koike in a recent speech.

Demographic crisis and alarm in Japan

In 2023the country registered 727,277 birthsthe lowest figure known and that enhances one of the population decline crisis most severe in the world. At the same time, the fertility rates They fell from 1.26 to 1.20, well below the generational level of around 2.1.

Shigeru Ishibathe Japanese Prime Minister, described this situation as a “silent emergency“that threatens the economic sustainability of Japan, due to the decline in the active population. Currently, more than 36 million Japanese They are over 65 years old, which represents 29.3% of the population.

What consequences and impact can it have in the long term?

The reduction of working hours four days is an important step to confront the problem, which will require, in any case, more structural, efficient and sustained measures to be able to reverse the consequences on the economy and the society.

Japan faces the modernization of the labor model, where the aging population and low birth rate, threaten sustainability of the population and gender equality in the sector. The success and functionality of this implementation in April 2025 will be determined by how the system responds. public and private sectorand the capacity of Government for sustain the initiative.