4 ms·

>10 percent of companies introduce fixed rest hours for employees by 2020 So in other words, they did nothing.

by ferongr 8y ago

ekianjo 8y ago
Purely political move to make some PR.
- veidr 8y ago
  To a large extent, sure, but this kind of norm-signaling is also actually effective as a change-driver in Japan. For instance, I can't believe how fast Tokyo converted to nonsmoking restaurants. When I got back here in 2008, after a decade in California, literally every restaurant I ever went to in the first 2 years still allowed smoking. But then around 2009 or 2010 it was like "blah blah government initiative to reduce public smoking". Nothing much changed for a while, but fast forward to this year, and — despite eating at least one meal out every day — I haven't experienced that even one time. A similar thing happened for paternity leave, here, and I witnessed the push for compliance at a previous employer. About a decade ago the government issued some statements like "hmm something something paternity leave", then regulations were issued but with large loopholes for several years to give companies time to come into compliance, and now, maybe not boom! but like (... booooooooooom...) it's basically Germany. You totally can take 18 months of paid paternity leave (not full-salary, but something like $2400 a month, same as women get), and companies are not allowed to refuse you. So yes, the problem is cultural and not regulatory, as you say in the sibling thread, but at the same time this kind of thing is how the culture starts to change in Japan. Official statement about problem X, then NHK covers it, then people start to talk about it at lunch, the companies form internal working groups to address it... it takes a long time, but I'd bet lots of companies in Japan are already scheduling manager meetings to talk about how to handle this issue (and yes, probably scheduled after normal business hours without anybody noticing the irony...)
  - majewsky 8y ago
    > it's basically Germany. You totally can take 18 months of paid paternity leave (not full-salary, but something like $2400 a month, same as women get), and companies are not allowed to refuse you. That's actually better than Germany. Parental leave in Germany is 14 months for both parents together, with the additional restriction that each parent can only take 12 months maximum. In practice, most mothers take 12 months off and most fathers take the other 2 months off. I've seen other setups though, like both parents taking 7 months off each.
  - ekianjo 8y ago
    No smoking in restaurants? Go in Osaka and you will find it very hard, apart from lunch time, to find any restaurant where smoking is banned during meals. And people are just smoking everywhere just like they used to be. It hasnt changed one bit in experience even after 2009, so I would put it as well as a PR move. If you are a non smoker it s almost impossible to go dinner outside at night. Tokyo may have more places because of its sheer size but Tokyo is not Japan.
    - veidr 8y ago
      Yes, that's true; the radical change in smoking environment is only in Tokyo so far. I assume that's because Tokyo is first though, and we will see similar developments in Osaka, Sapporo, etc. over the next 5-10 years... but I guess we'll see.

>10 percent of companies introduce fixed rest hours for employees by 2020 So in other words, they did nothing.

ekianjo 8y ago

Purely political move to make some PR.

veidr 8y ago
To a large extent, sure, but this kind of norm-signaling is also actually effective as a change-driver in Japan. For instance, I can't believe how fast Tokyo converted to nonsmoking restaurants. When I got back here in 2008, after a decade in California, literally every restaurant I ever went to in the first 2 years still allowed smoking. But then around 2009 or 2010 it was like "blah blah government initiative to reduce public smoking". Nothing much changed for a while, but fast forward to this year, and — despite eating at least one meal out every day — I haven't experienced that even one time. A similar thing happened for paternity leave, here, and I witnessed the push for compliance at a previous employer. About a decade ago the government issued some statements like "hmm something something paternity leave", then regulations were issued but with large loopholes for several years to give companies time to come into compliance, and now, maybe not boom! but like (... booooooooooom...) it's basically Germany. You totally can take 18 months of paid paternity leave (not full-salary, but something like $2400 a month, same as women get), and companies are not allowed to refuse you. So yes, the problem is cultural and not regulatory, as you say in the sibling thread, but at the same time this kind of thing is how the culture starts to change in Japan. Official statement about problem X, then NHK covers it, then people start to talk about it at lunch, the companies form internal working groups to address it... it takes a long time, but I'd bet lots of companies in Japan are already scheduling manager meetings to talk about how to handle this issue (and yes, probably scheduled after normal business hours without anybody noticing the irony...)
- majewsky 8y ago
  > it's basically Germany. You totally can take 18 months of paid paternity leave (not full-salary, but something like $2400 a month, same as women get), and companies are not allowed to refuse you. That's actually better than Germany. Parental leave in Germany is 14 months for both parents together, with the additional restriction that each parent can only take 12 months maximum. In practice, most mothers take 12 months off and most fathers take the other 2 months off. I've seen other setups though, like both parents taking 7 months off each.
- ekianjo 8y ago
  No smoking in restaurants? Go in Osaka and you will find it very hard, apart from lunch time, to find any restaurant where smoking is banned during meals. And people are just smoking everywhere just like they used to be. It hasnt changed one bit in experience even after 2009, so I would put it as well as a PR move. If you are a non smoker it s almost impossible to go dinner outside at night. Tokyo may have more places because of its sheer size but Tokyo is not Japan.
  - veidr 8y ago
    Yes, that's true; the radical change in smoking environment is only in Tokyo so far. I assume that's because Tokyo is first though, and we will see similar developments in Osaka, Sapporo, etc. over the next 5-10 years... but I guess we'll see.