Japan has a serious demographic problem. It’s already the world’s oldest society (22% of the population are 65 and older) and the birthrate stands at 1.34 (but a birthrate of 2.0 is needed to maintain Japan’s population).
So what does Nippon do? Answer 1: The country produces lots of robots to keep up productivity. Answer 2: The economy, in this case Canon, lets employees go home early (at 5.30 pm) to make more babies for the sake of the nation.
At least this is what CNN.com is reporting and what has been picked up by many other news sources and blogs around the globe. Canon is apparently telling all employees to go home earlier twice a week for said reason.
But I don’t really think that is true. I looked around on the Japanese web and on Canon’s Japanese homepage and couldn’t find any confirmation for this news. My guess is that Canon just announced a special childcare program and nothing more.
Let us know in the comments if you know more.
Erm, I see a flaw in the reported ‘plan’. Unless your other half either doesn’t work, or also works at Cannon, you’ll be home alone masturbating furiously.
Or maybe it’s Cannon’s way of reducing the amount of wages they have to pay in the current economic climate.
Once married, women in Japan typically don’t work – it’s seriously the old school mind of thinking that the lady stays at home to clean and the men work. So this is actually not a bad idea.
This has got to be a joke! The government may do this is if they are desperate and stupid :D but not a private company.
I think you know current Keidanren’s boss is Fujio Mitarai himself who is Canon’s chairman & CEO?
So if it’s coming from Keidanren’s (Japan Business Federation which is Japan’s most influential economic organization) official word, I guess Canon actually is doing it.
Also, I know few other Japanese companies are doing the same thing from the last year.
My younger brother’s company in Japan for example decided to force all employees to go home after 5:30. He’s now in the US branch and his boss is considering doing the same thing and then force them to work at home….which makes my brother happy since he’s working crazy like from 8am-10pm just like the most other Japanese companies.
I know Mitarai-san is the Keidanren boss and I am not saying that the new policy is not in effect. It’s about the GOAL of the policy.
What I am asking myself is whether CNN got it right: Is this really a call for making more babies to “save” Japan as the CNN.com report suggests?
Haha, yep, you’re right.
Thank you for your clarification.
I don’t think Canon or Mitarai-san ever suggested to go home early to “encourage his employees to have more babies”. In fact, the overtime work for young adults are really important in Japan as you know. They can’t even live by themselves in Tokyo without the additional payment because the base pay is super low.
I guess CNN just mixed up what Keidanren and the goverment are saying together.
I always enjoy your article, please keep posted.
Cheers,
Yusuke
Ok, Yusuke, that’s what I thought, too ;).