Right now, the General Union is handling cases at Japanese tech companies where well-established workplace practices have come under threat. These include businesses pushing for return-to-office mandates after years of remote work, eliminating flexible scheduling, and cutting bonuses and other forms of compensation. Sometimes these companies are altering work conditions that were never officially documented but had become standard practice. Other times, they’re trying to eliminate benefits explicitly written into contracts or work rules. In both cases, many workers believe they have no choice but to accept these changes. They’re wrong! Japanese labour law protects workers in two significant ways here. First, there’s the principle of established workplace practices (労使慣行, roudou kankou), protected through decades of court precedents, which can give unwritten customs the same legal weight as written rules. Then there’s Article 8 of the Labour Contract Law, which prevents employers from unilaterally changing documented working conditions. But having these legal protections is only half the battle. While the courts have established strong precedents, as an individual, pursuing these rights can be prohibitively difficult. Taking an employer to court is expensive, time-consuming, and potentially career-damaging. This is where collective action through unions becomes essential. Unions provide both the legal expertise and collective leverage needed to uphold these rights. For tech workers in Japan, these issues have never been more relevant. The tech industry’s desperate need for skilled workers, worth nearly 22 trillion yen in domestic investments, could create unprecedented leverage. By understanding their legal rights and organizing collectively, developers can effectively protect and even improve their workplace conditions in this critical moment. How the courts protect you A series of landmark cases in Japan created robust protections for workplace customs, also known as established employment practices. But what qualifies as an established employment practice? Yukiko Sadaoka, a regular collaborator with the General Union, explained how courts determine whether a workplace practice qualifies to be protected. “There are three main factors. One, a habit or fact must have been repeated and continued for a long period of time. Two, neither labour nor management has explicitly denied following the practice. And three, the practice must be supported by a normative awareness on both sides. The employers, especially those who control working conditions, must be aware of the practice.” Case 1: Post-Retirement Employment Practice (RECOGNISED) 東豊観光事件 (Toho Kanko), Osaka District Court 28, June 1990 In this order by the court, the company’s work regulations stated that the forced retirement age (定年, teinen) was 55. In practice, however, the company repeatedly kept employees on after they had reached this age. This custom continued for six years (1984–1990), during which 7 out of 8 employees who reached the age of 55 were retained. When the company terminated the 55 year-old plaintiff, citing the official retirement rule, the plaintiff sued for confirmation of employment status. The court stated that the practice of continued employment after 55 had become an established workplace custom. That custom overrode the written regulations, despite its relatively short period of practice, because it had been consistently applied to almost all employees who had reached the retirement age during that time. Case 2: Extra Pay for Substitute Holidays (DENIED) 商大八戸の里ドライビングスクール事件 (Syodai Yae-no-sato Driving School), Osaka High Court 25 June, 1993, and upheld by Supreme Court 9 March, 1995 Employees claimed entitlement to extra pay when working on a substitute holiday. The company’s policy was that every other Monday was a day off. If that particular Monday fell on a national holiday, Tuesday would become the substitute day off (振替休日, furikae kyuujitsu). The question was whether working on these Tuesday substitute holidays entitled workers to extra holiday pay. Although this practice had existed for 10 years, both the Osaka High Court, and the Supreme Court denied that it was an established workplace practice because the specific situation—working on a Tuesday substitute holiday—had only occurred 8–10 times during that period. This case demonstrates that frequency matters. Even when established over a lengthy period of time, if the actual instances of the practice are rare, it may not be considered established. Case 3: Bonus Amount Practice (PARTIALLY RECOGNISED) 立命館事件 (Ritsumeikan), Kyoto District Court 29 March 2012 (appealed, outcome uncertain) This case involved a bonus dispute. For 14 years, according to labour agreements (労働協約, roudou kyouyaku), the company had paid a bonus of 6.1 months’ salary plus 100,000 yen. However, there was no provision about bonuses in the company work rules (就業規則, shuugyou kisoku). When the employer announced the forthcoming bonus would be only 5.1 months’ salary, employees claimed the higher amount was an established practice. The court made an interesting distinction: It ruled that the specific amount (6.1 months + 100,000 yen) was NOT an established practice because there had been negotiations each year before agreeing on the amount, even though the final amount had always been the same. However, it recognised that “at least 6 months’ salary” had become an established practice, because the employer’s initial offer had never been lower than 6 months throughout the 14-year period. This case demonstrates the nuanced way courts examine whether a practice has created a legitimate expectation that can’t be unilaterally changed. These examples show that determining what constitutes an established workplace practice isn’t a simple matter of time. Courts look at consistency, frequency, specificity, and whether both sides understood the practice to be binding—even if they didn’t write it down. Other cases of interest The courts’ protection of established practices has occasionally been implemented in surprising ways. Take a case from 1968 that went all the way to the Tokyo High Court. The issue? Whether railway workers could continue their long-standing practice of using the company bath at 4 p.m. and clocking out at 4:30. At first glance, it might seem trivial—why fight over a bathing schedule? But the court’s decision was significant: after 13 years of this practice, with management’s knowledge and acceptance, it had become a legally-protected workplace custom that couldn’t be unilaterally changed. In the 1973 Shishido Shokai case (宍戸商会事件), the Tokyo District Court ruled that a company must pay severance to a voluntarily-resigned employee because consistent payment to other departing employees had established a binding workplace custom. The court classified these payments as deferred wages, confirming that consistent practices can create legal rights without written policies. Even when ruling in employers’ favour, courts have reinforced the importance of established practices. The 1982 Daiwa Bank case (大和銀行事件) upheld the bank’s long-standing practice of paying bonuses only to those still employed on payment dates, ruling that workers who left before payment weren’t entitled to bonuses despite working during the calculation period. These court precedents have established principles that apply universally across all industries. Whether a railway worker’s bathing schedule from the 1960s or solidifying employer rights, established employment practices are a real concept that can be parlayed into tech workers’ fight to maintain their working conditions. What does the law say? Article 8 of the Labour Contract Law also protects you against unilateral changes to working conditions. The law states, “A Worker and an Employer may, by agreement, change any working conditions that constitute the contents of a labour contract.” While the law is written in the positive, the inverse is what is important: “a worker and an employer cannot change working conditions without mutual agreement.” So, what constitutes the “contents of a labour contract”? Does this only deal with working conditions that are specifically written into your employment contract? According to General Union Chair Toshiaki Asari, “The idea that long-standing practices can become part of the employment contract and receive legal protection—even if they aren’t explicitly written—is well-established as a legal doctrine. Therefore, long-standing practices should also fall under the protections of Article 8 of the Labour Contract Law, just like written working conditions.” This perspective is supported by a significant 1991 Supreme Court ruling in the Hitachi Musashi Factory case (日立製作所武蔵工場事件). When an employee refused to work overtime during a production issue, claiming the request was unreasonable, the court found that the company’s consistent practice of requiring overtime in specific situations had become an implied term of employment—even without documentation. Because this practice was long-standing and implicitly accepted by employees over time, the court upheld the company’s disciplinary action. Though the ruling was in the employer’s favor, it also established that workplace customs, through consistent application and mutual understanding, can become legally binding components of employment contracts. Does this mean an employer can never change any working condition? The short answer is: they certainly can. This right of the employer to change working conditions is established in both Articles 9 and 10 of the Labour Contract Law. However, Article 9 also sets up a fundamental principle: employers cannot unilaterally change working conditions to workers’ disadvantage by modifying work rules without employee agreement. While Article 10 provides limited exceptions to this principle, it sets strict criteria that employers must meet. Any changes must be: Properly communicated to workers Reasonable given the degree of disadvantage to workers Necessary for the business Appropriate in their revised content Preceded by proper negotiations with unions or worker representatives This framework ensures that while employers can adapt to changing business needs, they cannot do so by simply imposing disadvantageous changes on workers without justification or prior consultation. The reality of defending your rights But what do these legal protections really mean in practice? Terms like disadvantages, reasonable, necessary, and appropriate sound reassuring on paper. Yet their practical meaning becomes far less clear when your employer suddenly demands you return to the office after five years of remote work, or changes how raises are calculated, or alters stock option arrangements. This is where the gap between legal rights and practical enforcement becomes stark. While the law provides a strong framework for protecting workplace practices, enforcing these rights as an individual is another matter entirely. Taking your employer to court is a long, expensive process that could take years to resolve, and that’s not only in the case of established employment practices. Even the seemingly clear prescriptions of the Labour Contract Law can only be enforced through court action. In the meantime, you’re stuck working under the contested conditions, while potentially damaging both your career and wellbeing. And remember, if you want to negotiate with your employer about changes to workplace practices, they have no legal obligation to even meet with you. They can simply ignore your requests or refuse outright. The power of collective action Unlike individual workers, who can be ignored or denied the chance to meet with management, employers cannot legally refuse to negotiate with a labour union. This right to collective bargaining is protected by the Trade Union Law. Even if you’re the only union member in your workplace, the company must negotiate with your union in good faith. The law also protects union members from retaliation or disadvantageous treatment. Unions offer multiple pathways for protecting workers’ rights and established employment practices. One key strategy is establishing prior consultation agreements (事前協議協定, jizen kyougi kyoutei), which require employers to inform and consult with the union before implementing changes to working conditions. By securing a seat at the table early, unions can influence decisions and propose alternatives before changes are implemented, rather than fighting them after the fact. Through collective bargaining, unions can also convert established workplace practices into written agreements, giving them stronger protection than relying on court precedents alone. By codifying these customs in collective agreements, they become immune to unilateral changes by employers. This matters because collective agreements sit at the top of the workplace rules hierarchy, superseding both individual contracts and company work rules—they’re the gold standard in protecting workers’ rights. True, an employer might still break a collective agreement, but unlike individual workers who can only turn to courts or government agencies, unions have multiple ways to respond. They can file complaints with the Labour Commission, as violating a collective agreement constitutes an unfair labour practice under the Trade Union Law. Most importantly, unions retain the right to take direct action through strikes and other collective measures—options simply not available to individual workers. As an individual, though, declaring union membership often shifts the power dynamic. When you’re backed by a union, you’re no longer facing the company alone. Many disputes are resolved at this early stage, as employers recognise that their actions will face greater scrutiny. While some employers might still attempt to violate the law, most understand that directly confronting unions by targeting their members creates more problems than it’s worth. Remember, your right to labour union representation is enshrined both in the Trade Union Law and Article 28 of the Constitution, which states that “The right of workers to organise and to bargain and act collectively is guaranteed.” Unions can also push beyond merely protecting existing rights, into negotiating improvements that particularly matter to tech workers—like expanded remote work options, clearer overtime compensation for project crunch times, training and skill development budgets, improved parental leave policies, and protections against excessive on-call rotations. Unions can also establish guidelines on emerging issues like AI implementation policies and the right to disconnect after working hours. Conclusion For developers, this situation presents a unique opportunity for collective action. Japan’s tech industry, worth nearly 22 trillion yen in domestic IT investments alone, mirrors the automotive industry of mid-20th century America—a wealthy, rapidly growing sector desperately in need of workers at all skill levels. Like the auto plants of Detroit, modern tech companies rely on a diverse workforce ranging from highly-paid specialists to entry-level developers. This combination—a wealthy industry, a significant labour shortage, and the critical role tech workers play in company operations—creates unprecedented leverage for collective action. Just as auto workers used their position to secure better wages and working conditions in the 1950s and 1960s, tech workers today could wield similar influence. The cost of lost productivity in tech companies can run into millions of yen per day, giving organised workers significant bargaining power. Moreover, unlike in traditional manufacturing where production delays might only affect future sales, many tech companies lose revenue immediately when work stops. By maintaining critical systems, supporting client operations, and keeping online services running, tech workers’ daily tasks directly impact their companies’ bottom lines. Even a small group of organised workers can effectively advocate for better conditions. That’s why understanding your legal rights under Japanese labour law is crucial—it provides the foundation for protecting established employment practices and knowing what you can rightfully demand. But knowledge alone isn’t enough. Whether these rights come from written contracts, established customs, or collective agreements, making them real requires more than just knowing they exist: it requires standing together to defend them. Through union membership, you combine legal protection with collective power—that is, you have both the law on your side and an active organisation working to protect your rights, with real mechanisms to enforce them.

Over my career, I’ve spent at least one thousand working hours on supporting local developer communities. My current business, TokyoDev, has spent over 8 million Japanese yen (about 53,000 USD) on community sponsorships. What have I received in return? That depends on your viewpoint. From a cold-hearted capitalist perspective, that time and money I invested hasn’t produced enough direct returns to justify the expense. Personally, I don’t see it as wasted—all of it has had a positive impact on society. What’s more, the three businesses I founded have owed much of their success to my community involvement. Those companies are: Mobalean, a technical consultancy that helped companies like PayPal, Match.com, and Estee Lauder build web apps for Japanese feature phones Doorkeeper, an event registration platform that hosted thousands of events per month TokyoDev, a job board that helps international software engineers get jobs in Japan If I hadn’t volunteered for and donated to various developer communities, two out of those three businesses would never have been founded at all, and TokyoDev certainly wouldn’t be the success story it is today. So, despite these “unequal” returns, one of the best strategies for my startups has been to get involved with communities whenever possible. I’ll go over some of the different ways communities have helped grow my businesses, and give specific examples of wins we’ve experienced over the years. Growing through existing communities There are two kinds of communities that can help you grow your startup: preexisting communities independent of your business, and communities you build around the business itself. My companies got their start due to my involvement in existing communities, and I think that is the easier place to begin. Already-established communities not only come with their own networks, but are usually easy to join and happy to receive support. Volunteering This was the origin of Doorkeeper. An industry event, Mobile Monday Tokyo, was registering hundreds of people for their events. Checking those people in at the door was always time-consuming, particularly as some names were in English and others in Japanese, giving no good way to sort the list. Seeing this, my cofounders and I proposed building some software to send out QR code tickets. Back in 2008, that was still a relatively novel idea. Mobile Monday was happy for us to do it, so we quickly built a one-off solution for them. We went further than that though—we also personally manned the doors for their events. I remember the first event where we checked in people using the new QR code tickets. It was quite rewarding to be able to tell the participants, “I built this.” That sense of satisfaction wasn’t the only immediate payoff—because we got involved in the event, it also served as marketing for Mobalean, our technical consultancy. We made connections with people in the industry, and when they had projects related to mobile web development, they started coming to us. Later, after we’d solved all of Mobile Monday’s event registration and ticketing needs, we thought other organizations might benefit from our work. We spent months rebuilding the tool to support multiple communities and launched it as Doorkeeper. Initially, though, it struggled to get users. Meanwhile, we continued to volunteer with other communities we were interested in, such as Startup Weekend Japan and RubyKaigi, Japan’s (and possibly the world’s) largest Ruby conference. We didn’t directly ask those communities to use our software, but after we got involved with them, they decided of their own accord to start using Doorkeeper. Because these events made quite an impact on the tech community in Japan, they helped us grow immensely, leading Doorkeeper to become the most popular platform for developer events in Japan. This wasn’t some sort of coldly-calculated strategy. I don’t think it would have worked if it had been. Sure, we knew that if we were running an event platform, it was a good idea to be involved with events, both to make connections and to personally experience our target audience’s problems. But our main motivation was just to help causes we believed in. I think our sincerity helped motivate the organizers to take a chance on a product that was still rather rough around the edges. Business-wise, Doorkeeper was never a runaway success. We struggled for years to monetize it. The turning point was when we announced we’d go from being a freemium service to an exclusively paid one. A lot of organizers stopped using us, but enough continued that I could finally pay myself a decent salary from the product’s revenue alone. What’s more, there was almost no backlash against the move. I think this was because we’d been socially connected to the organizers for the entire history of the company, and they could see that we were being genuine when we said there was no other way forward. I’ve since sold Doorkeeper, but the lessons I learned still stick with me. Speaking at community events Over the years, I’ve delivered numerous presentations on software development and entrepreneurship at different community events. At least for someone like myself, who doesn’t regularly give talks, preparing for them can be quite time-consuming. While I do believe it has helped keep my businesses in the minds of my target audience, I can’t think of a single example where giving a presentation led directly to a new lead. The closest we came to that was after speaking at a Ruby event about a library for handling subscriptions with PayPal. As part of the talk, we mentioned a new side project we were working on, a web app to make Japanese invoices. One of the attendees, a prominent member of the Japanese Ruby community, tweeted about the new service, effectively launching it. That initial buzz and the SEO-friendly domain name (the Japanese word for invoice), helped us become one of the top search results. The project didn’t end up going anywhere as a business, though, and we sold it around a year later. Starting your own independent community In 2010, I created Tokyo Rubyist Meetup, Japan’s first English-language community for Ruby developers. The goal of the group was to bring together the Japanese and international Ruby communities, and I believe we’ve succeeded. I think my efforts in organizing that community may have been why RubyKaigi chose to adopt Doorkeeper for their event registration. It also helped me connect with some of Mobalean’s best consulting clients. Finally—and most importantly—it indirectly led to developing TokyoDev as a business. The CTO of a local startup said something like, “Paul, I’ve been having trouble hiring developers. I know you’re well-connected with the community. Could I pay you to help hire some?” That CTO, along with others in similar situations, became the first clients for TokyoDev’s job board. Sponsoring existing organizations The methods I’ve talked about so far involve a lot of time but no cost. Sponsoring existing organizations is the opposite: all it requires is money. The cost involved depends on the scale of the sponsorship, and the perceived value of the community. When I saw in TokyoDev’s own data that women software engineers were being compensated worse than men, I wanted to do something about it. The simplest solution I came up with was sponsoring local communities that empower women in technology. I sought out some local organizations and offered to sponsor them, including a few that had never had sponsors before. Since then, TokyoDev has also sponsored local tech conferences, including RubyKaigi. These sponsorships have ranged from 100,000 yen (about 665 USD) on the low end to 1.5 million yen (about 10,000 USD) on the high end. In total, TokyoDev has spent over 8 million yen (about 53,000 USD) on sponsorships. Some of the big-ticket sponsorships have come with booths at conferences, which do provide new opportunities, but also additional costs—staffing the booths, airfare, hotels, etc. The more expensive conference sponsorships have directly resulted in several new clients for the job board, but not yet in any additional revenue (because we take a success-based approach, and those clients haven’t made any hires through us yet). I think for sponsorships to be really cost-effective, the target audience of the community must match your startup perfectly. Part of our challenge has been that many of these communities are primarily composed of Japanese software engineers, who aren’t the main users of TokyoDev. Still, while these sponsorships haven’t been a cost-effective way of improving our bottom line, they have helped communities and gotten the word out, as well as offering some other knock-on benefits. One specific example is from 2024, when we gave away one of our sponsor tickets to a job-hunting developer, and they found a position through a connection they made at the conference. Another example is “in-house.” One of our contractors introduced her daughter to a community we’ve sponsored, which helps young women get into software development. This inspired her daughter to become interested in programming and eventually to enroll in the program—something nobody in her family had anticipated! Growing your own communities While TokyoDev got its start thanks to local, preexisting organizations, we’ve also worked hard to create our own TokyoDev community, both online and off. Running an online community One of the first articles I wrote for TokyoDev was in response to a reader’s question about how I got my job as a developer in Japan. Over the years, I continued to receive emails asking for personalized advice. While I was happy to respond to people individually, it felt like that knowledge could also be of use to other people, so I started a forum using Discourse. Over the years I’d get questions on there, and occasionally someone else might chime in with their experience, but it was mostly just me responding to queries, and so wasn’t anything I’d call a “community.” Along the way, one of our contractors pointed out that it would be nice to create a space where we could casually talk to our users. After he brought it up several times, I made a Discord community. This quickly took off, and currently sits at about 7,000 members. Growing such a community hasn’t been without its challenges. The primary difficulty is moderation—no matter how we handle it, some users feel alienated. Have too soft a hand? The loudest voices win, driving away other valuable contributors. Reprimand or ban people? You make enemies out of what were once fans. I can’t say I’ve always done everything right here, but one thing I did do right was bring on a moderator who cares about the community. Besides having someone to bounce ideas around with, it also helps to have an additional person enforcing the rules. We have seen several benefits from our online community. At least one client made a hire through us that I can directly attribute to our Discord. That said, it’s the indirect benefits that have proven most valuable. For instance, our Discord helped us identify common challenges that developers face when relocating to Japan, making it a good source of topics for articles. We’ve also been able to ask members with unique experiences to write articles for the site, and their posts have been some of the most popular, such as one on Japan’s digital nomad visa. Organizing offline events As our Discord community grew, members started asking us to host offline meetups. We held our first one with a dozen or so people at a space we rented out ourselves, and provided soft drinks. This cost us about 30,000 yen (200 USD). The meetup was a success and we continued to host. Eventually, one of our members offered to hold the meetups at their company. This change allowed us to grow the meetups further, and we started regularly maxing out their capacity with 40 or so attendees. It also meant we only needed to pay for the soft drinks, bringing our cost down to 5,000 yen (33 USD). Not only was that quite cost-effective, but the company hosting the event eventually became a client of ours. We also started using our offline meetings to bring our clients together with the larger developer community, by holding collaborative events where the client gives presentations that are technically interesting to our audience. We’re careful to make sure these aren’t direct recruiting events, as I think that would drive away the very people our clients are looking to hire. By indirectly highlighting why it is interesting to work with them, however, our clients have been able to find more prospects. Initially, we catered these events with pizza and soft drinks, which cost around 30,000 yen (200 USD) for a 40 person event. Since we haven’t been charging clients for organizing these talks, we began asking them to provide food and drinks instead. As a result, these events have been win-win for everyone involved. Our clients get better branding amongst the developer community. Our community members enjoy interesting content and new connections. We establish stronger relationships with everyone involved. In addition to this offline community for software engineers, we’ve also started to build another offline community for the internal recruiters using TokyoDev. We began by hosting small dinners with internal recruiters from three or four different clients. This gave them the opportunity to share about the challenges they faced hiring international engineers. Hosting such a dinner cost us about 30,000 yen (200 USD), and led one company that was on the fence to start using TokyoDev. The dinners have proven to be a big success, and recruiters tell us they want to attend more, but there’s only so much time we can spend on them. To augment these networking meals, we’ve also started holding seminars on the topic of hiring engineers, so we can bring together a larger number of our clients at once. These don’t have quite the impact as the small dinners, but they are more scalable. Conclusion Communities have been key to all of my businesses. If my focus had been solely on maximizing revenues, I think the time and money I’ve spent on community involvement could have been better used elsewhere. But the nice thing about being an entrepreneur is that you get to choose your own metrics for success. And unlike with other business strategies, I can always feel good about what we accomplish. Even if an activity doesn’t create value for me personally, it does for someone else, so my efforts are never wasted. If you’re an entrepreneur looking to combine business and the common good, I recommend finding ways to build your company through the community as well. Whether it’s by spending your own time volunteering, contributing part of your business’s revenues to causes you care about, or building up a community around your brand, all these avenues can help both your enterprise and the public at large.

Japan already stipulates that employers must offer the option of reduced working hours to employees with children under three. However, the Child Care and Family Care Leave Act was amended in May 2024, with some of the new provisions coming into effect April 1 or October 1, 2025. The updates to the law address: Remote work Flexible start and end times Reduced hours On-site childcare facilities Compensation for lost salary And more Legal changes are one thing, of course, and social changes are another. Though employers are mandated to offer these options, how many employees in Japan actually avail themselves of these benefits? Does doing so create any stigma or resentment? Recent studies reveal an unsurprising gender disparity in accepting a modified work schedule, but generally positive attitudes toward these accommodations overall. The current reduced work options Reduced work schedules for employees with children under three years old are currently regulated by Article 23(1) of the Child Care and Family Care Leave Act. This Article stipulates that employers are required to offer accommodations to employees with children under three years old. Those accommodations must include the opportunity for a reduced work schedule of six hours a day. However, if the company is prepared to provide alternatives, and if the parent would prefer, this benefit can take other forms—for example, working seven hours a day or working fewer days per week. Eligible employees for the reduced work schedule are those who: Have children under three years old Normally work more than six hours a day Are not employed as day laborers Are not on childcare leave during the period to which the reduced work schedule applies Are not one of the following, which are exempted from the labor-management agreement Employees who have been employed by the company for less than one year Employees whose prescribed working days per week are two days or less Although the law requires employers to provide reduced work schedules only while the child is under three years old, some companies allow their employees with older children to work shorter hours as well. According to a 2020 survey by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, 15.8% of companies permit their employees to use the system until their children enter primary school, while 5.7% allow it until their children turn nine years old or enter third grade. Around 4% offer reduced hours until children graduate from elementary school, and 15.4% of companies give the option even after children have entered middle school. If, considering the nature or conditions of the work, it is difficult to give a reduced work schedule to employees, the law stipulates other measures such as flexible working hours. This law has now been altered, though, to include other accommodations. Updates to The Child Care and Family Care Leave Act Previously, remote work was not an option for employees with young children. Now, from April 1, 2025, employers must make an effort to allow employees with children under the age of three to work remotely if they choose. From October 1, 2025, employers are also obligated to provide two or more of the following measures to employees with children between the ages of three and the time they enter elementary school. An altered start time without changing the daily working hours, either by using a flex time system or by changing both the start and finish time for the workday The option to work remotely without changing daily working hours, which can be used 10 or more days per month Company-sponsored childcare, by providing childcare facilities or other equivalent benefits (e.g., arranging for babysitters and covering the cost) 10 days of leave per year to support employees’ childcare without changing daily working hours A reduced work schedule, which must include the option of 6-hour days How much it’s used in practice Of course, there’s always a gap between what the law specifies, and what actually happens in practice. How many parents typically make use of these legally-mandated accommodations, and for how long? The numbers A survey conducted by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in 2020 studied uptake of the reduced work schedule among employees with children under three years old. In this category, 40.8% of female permanent employees (正社員, seishain) and 21.6% of women who were not permanent employees answered that they use, or had used, the reduced work schedule. Only 12.3% of male permanent employees said the same. The same survey was conducted in 2022, and researchers found that the gap between female and male employees had actually widened. According to this second survey, 51.2% of female permanent employees and 24.3% of female non-permanent employees had reduced their hours, compared to only 7.6% of male permanent employees. Not only were fewer male employees using reduced work programs, but 41.2% of them said they did not intend to make use of them. By contrast, a mere 15.6% of female permanent employees answered they didn’t wish to claim the benefit. Of those employees who prefer the shorter schedule, how long do they typically use the benefit? The following charts, using data from the 2022 survey, show at what point those employees stop reducing their hours and return to a full-time schedule.   Female permanent employees Female non-permanent employees Male permanent employees Male non-permanent employees Until youngest child turns 1 13.7% 17.9% 50.0% 25.9% Until youngest child turns 2 11.5% 7.9% 14.5% 29.6% Until youngest child turns 3 23.0% 16.3% 10.5% 11.1% Until youngest child enters primary school 18.9% 10.5% 6.6% 11.1% Sometime after the youngest child enters primary school 22.8% 16.9% 6.5% 11.1% Not sure 10% 30.5% 11.8% 11.1% From the companies’ perspectives, according to a survey conducted by the Cabinet Office in 2023, 65.9% of employers answered that their reduced work schedule system is fully used by their employees. What’s the public perception? Some fear that the number of people using the reduced work program—and, especially, the number of women—has created an impression of unfairness for those employees who work full-time. This is a natural concern, but statistics paint a different picture. In a survey of 300 people conducted in 2024, 49% actually expressed a favorable opinion of people who work shorter hours. Also, 38% had “no opinion” toward colleagues with reduced work schedules, indicating that 87% total don’t negatively view those parents who work shorter hours. While attitudes may vary from company to company, the public overall doesn’t seem to attach any stigma to parents who reduce their work schedules. Is this “the Mommy Track”? Others are concerned that working shorter hours will detour their career path. According to this report by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 47.6% of male permanent employees indicated that, as the result of working fewer hours, they had been changed to a position with less responsibility. The same thing happened to 65.6% of male non-permanent employees, and 22.7% of female permanent employees. Therefore, it’s possible that using the reduced work schedule can affect one’s immediate chances for advancement. However, while 25% of male permanent employees and 15.5% of female permanent employees said the quality and importance of the work they were assigned had gone down, 21.4% of male and 18.1% of female permanent employees said the quality had gone up. Considering 53.6% of male and 66.4% of female permanent employees said it stayed the same, there seems to be no strong correlation between reducing one’s working hours, and being given less interesting or important tasks. Reduced work means reduced salary These reduced work schedules usually entail dropping below the originally-contracted work hours, which means the employer does not have to pay the employee for the time they did not work. For example, consider a person who normally works 8 hours a day reducing their work time to 6 hours a day (a 25% reduction). If their monthly salary is 300,000 yen, it would also decrease accordingly by 25% to 225,000 yen. Previously, both men and women have avoided reduced work schedules, because they do not want to lose income. As more mothers than fathers choose to work shorter hours, this financial burden tends to fall more heavily on women. To address this issue, childcare short-time employment benefits (育児時短就業給付) will start from April 2025. These benefits cover both male and female employees who work shorter hours to care for a child under two years old, and pay a stipend equivalent to 10% of their adjusted monthly salary during the reduced work schedule. Returning to the previous example, this stipend would grant 10% of the reduced salary, or 22,500 yen per month, bringing the total monthly paycheck to 247,500 yen, or 82.5% of the normal salary. This additional stipend, while helpful, may not be enough to persuade some families to accept shorter hours. The childcare short-time employment benefits are available to employees who meet the following criteria: The person is insured, and is working shorter hours to care for a child under two years old. The person started a reduced work schedule immediately after using the childcare leave covered by childcare leave benefits, or the person has been insured for 12 months in the two years prior to the reduced work schedule. Conclusion Japan’s newly-mandated options for reduced schedules, remote work, financial benefits, and other childcare accommodations could help many families in Japan. However, these programs will only prove beneficial if enough employees take advantage of them. As of now, there’s some concern that parents who accept shorter schedules could look bad or end up damaging their careers in the long run. Statistically speaking, some of the news is good: most people view parents who reduce their hours either positively or neutrally, not negatively. But other surveys indicate that a reduction in work hours often equates to a reduction in responsibility, which could indeed have long-term effects. That’s why it’s important for more parents to use these accommodations freely. Not only will doing so directly benefit the children, but it will also lessen any negative stigma associated with claiming them. This is particularly true for fathers, who can help even the playing field for their female colleagues by using these perks just as much as the mothers in their offices. And since the state is now offering a stipend to help compensate for lost income, there’s less and less reason not to take full advantage of these programs.

Since November 2023, I’ve been living in Karuizawa, a small resort town that’s 70 minutes away from Tokyo by Shinkansen. The elevation is approximately 1000 meters above sea level, making the summers relatively mild. Unlike other colder places in Japan, it doesn’t get much snow, and has the same sunny winters I came to love in Tokyo. With COVID and the remote work boom, it’s also become popular among professionals such as myself who want to live somewhere with an abundance of nature, but who still need to commute into Tokyo on a semi-regular basis. While I have a home office, I sometimes like to work outside. So I thought I’d share my impressions of the coworking spaces in town that I’ve personally visited, and a few other places where you can get some work done when you’re in town. Sawamura Roastery 11am on a Friday morning and there was only one other customer. Sawamura Roastery is technically a cafe, but it’s my personal favourite coworking space. It has free wifi, outlets, and comfortable chairs. While their coffees are on the expensive side, at about 750 yen for a cafe latte, they are also some of Karuizawa’s best. It’s empty enough on weekday mornings that I feel fine about staying there for hours, making it a deal compared to official drop-in coworking spaces. Another bonus is that it opens early: 7 a.m. (or 8 a.m. during the winter months). This allows me to start working right after I drop off my kids at daycare, rather than having 20 odd minutes to kill before heading to the other places that open at 9 a.m. If you’re having an online meeting, you can make use of the outdoor seating. It’s perfect when the weather is nice, but they also have heating for when it isn’t. The downsides are that their playlist is rather short, so I’m constantly hearing the same songs, and their roasting machine sometimes gets quite noisy. Gokalab Gokalab is my favourite dedicated coworking space in Karuizawa. Technically it is in Miyota, the next town over, which is sometimes called “Nishikaruizawa”. But it’s the only coworking space in the area I’ve been to that feels like it has a real community. When you want to work here, you have three options: buy a drink (600 yen for a cafe au lait—no cafe lattes, unfortunately, but if you prefer black coffee they have a good selection) and work out of the cafe area on the first floor; pay their daily drop-in fee of 1,000 yen; or become a “researcher” (研究員, kenkyuin) for 3,000 yen per month and enjoy unlimited usage. Now you may be thinking that the last option is a steal. That’s because it is. However, to become a researcher you need to go through a workshop that involves making something out of LEGO, and submit an essay about why you want to use the space. The thinking behind this is that they want to support people who actually share their vision, and aren’t just after a cheap space to work or study. Kind of zany, but that sort of out-of-the-box thinking is exactly what I want in a coworking space. When I first moved to Karuizawa, my youngest child couldn’t get into the local daycare. However, we found out that in Miyota, Suginoko Kindergarten had part-time spots available for two year olds. My wife and I ended up taking turns driving my kid there, and then spending the morning working out of Gokalab. Since my youngest is now in a local daycare, I haven’t made it out to Gokalab much. It’s just a bit too far for me (about a 15-minute drive from my house, while other options on this list are at most a 15-minute bicycle ride). But if I was living closer, I’d be a regular there. 232 Coworking Space & Hotel Noon on a Monday morning at 232 Coworking Space. If you’re looking for a coworking space near Karuizawa station, 232 Coworking Space & Hotel is the best option I’ve come across. The “hotel” part of the name made me think they were focused on “workcations,” but the space seems like it caters to locals as well. The space offers free coffee via an automatic espresso machine, along with other drinks, and a decent number of desks. When I used it on a Monday morning in the off-season, it was moderately occupied at perhaps a quarter capacity. Everyone spoke in whispers, so it felt a bit like a library. There were two booths for calls, but unfortunately they were both occupied when I wanted to have mine, so I had to sit in the hall instead. If the weather was a bit warmer I would have taken it outside, as there was some nice covered seating available. The decor was nice, though the chairs weren’t that comfortable. After a couple of hours I was getting sore. It was also too dimly lit for me, without much natural light. The price for drop-ins is reasonable, starting at 1,500 yen for four hours. They also have monthly plans starting from 10,000 yen for five days per month. WhatI found missing was a feeling of community. I didn’t see any small talk between the people working there, though I was only there for a couple hours, and maybe this occurs at other times. Their webpage also mentioned that they host events, but apparently they don’t have any upcoming ones planned and haven’t had any in a while. Shozo Coffee Karuizawa The latte is just okay here, but the atmosphere is nice. Shozo Coffee Karuizawa is a cafe on the first floor of the bookstore in Karuizawa Commongrounds. The second floor has a dedicated coworking space, but for me personally, the cafe is a better deal. Their cafe latte is mid-tier and 700 yen. In the afternoons I’ll go for their chai to avoid over-caffeination. They offer free wifi and have signs posted asking you not to hold online meetings, implicitly making it clear that otherwise they don’t mind you working there. Location-wise, this place is very convenient for me, but it suffers from a fatal flaw that prevents me from working there for an extended amount of time: the tables are way too low for me to type comfortably. I’m tall though (190 cm), so they aren’t designed with me in mind. Sheridan Coffee and a popover \- my entrance fee to this “coworking space”. Sheridan is a western breakfast and brunch restaurant. They aren’t that busy on weekdays and have free wifi, plus the owner was happy to let me work there. The coffee comes in a pot with enough for at least one refill. There’s also some covered outdoor seating. I used this spot to get some work done when my child was sick and being looked after at the wonderful Hochi Lodge (ほっちのロージ). It’s a clinic and sick childcare facility that does its best to not let on that it’s a medical facility. The doctors and nurses don’t wear uniforms, and appointments there feel more like you’re visiting someone’s home. Sheridan is within walking distance of it. Natural Cafeina An excellent cappuccino but only an okay place to work. If you’d like to get a bit of work done over an excellent cappuccino, Natural Cafeina is a good option. This cafe feels a bit cramped, and as there isn’t much seating, I wouldn’t want to use it for an extended period of time. Also, the music was also a bit loud. But they do have free wifi, and when I visited, there were a couple of other customers besides myself working there. Nakakaruizawa Library The Nakakaruizawa Library is a beautiful space with plenty of desks facing the windows and free wifi. Anyone can use it for free, making it the most economical coworking space in town. I’ve tried working out of it, but found that, for me personally, it wasn’t conducive to work. It is still a library, and there’s something about the vibes that just doesn’t inspire me. Karuizawa Commongrounds Bookstore Coworking Space The renowned bookstore Tsutaya operates Karuizawa Books in the Karuizawa Commongrounds development. The second floor has a coworking space that features the “cheap chic” look common among hip coworking spaces. Unfinished plywood is everywhere, as are books. I’d never actually worked at this space until writing this article. The price is just too high for me to justify it, as it starts at 1,100 yen for a mere hour, to a max of 4,000 yen per day. At 22,000 yen per month, it’s a more reasonable price for someone using it as an office full time. But I already have a home office and just want somewhere I can drop in at occasionally. There are a couple options, seating-wise. Most of the seats are in booths, which I found rather dark but with comfortable chairs. Then there’s a row of stools next to the window, which offer a good view, but are too uncomfortable for me. Depending on your height, the bar there may work as a standing desk. Lastly, there are two coveted seats with office chairs by a window, but they were both occupied when I visited. The emphasis here seems to be on individual deep work, and though there were a number of other people working, I’d have felt uncomfortable striking up a conversation with one of them. That’s enough to make me give it a pass. Coworking Space Ikoi Villa Coworking Space Ikoi Villa is located in Naka-Karuizawa, relatively close to my home. I’ve only used it once though. It’s part of a hotel, and they converted the lobby to a coworking space by putting a bunch of desks and chairs in it. If all you need is wifi and space to work, it gets the job done. But it’s a shame they didn’t invest a bit more in making it feel like a nice place to work. I went during the summer on one of the hottest days. My house only had one AC unit and couldn’t keep up, so I was hoping to find somewhere cooler to work. But they just had the windows open with some fans going, which left me disappointed. This was ostensibly the peak season for Karuizawa, but only a couple of others were working there that day. Maybe the regulars knew it’d be too hot, but it felt kind of lonely for a coworking space. The drop-in fee starts at 1,000 yen for four hours. It comes with free drinks from a machine: green tea, coffee, and water, if I recall correctly. Karuizawa Prince The Workation Core Do you like corporate vibes? Then this is the place for you. Karuizawa Prince The Workation Core is a coworking space located in my least favourite part of the town—the outlet mall. The throngs of shoppers and rampant commercialism are in stark contrast to the serenity found farther away from the station. This is another coworking space I visited expressly for this article. The fee is 660 yen per 30 minutes, to a maximum of 6,336 yen per day. Even now, just reading that maximum, my heart skipped a beat. This is certainly the most expensive coworking space I’ve ever worked from—I better get this article done fast. The facilities include a large open space with reasonably comfortable seating. There are a number of booths with monitors. As they are 23.8 inch monitors with 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, they’re a step down from the resolution of modern laptops, and so not of much use. Though there was room for 40 plus people, I was the only person working . Granted this was on a Sunday morning, so not when most people would typically attend. I don’t think I’ll be back here again. The price and sterile corporate vibe just aren’t for me. If you’re staying at The Prince Hotel, I think you get a discount. In that case, maybe it’s worth it, but otherwise I think there are better options. Sawamura Bakery & Restaurant Kyukaruizawa Sawamura Bakery & Restaurant is across the street from the Roastery. It offers slightly cheaper prices, with about 100 yen off the cafe latte, though the quality is worse, as is the vibe of the place as a whole. They do have a bigger selection of baked goods, though. As a cafe for doing some work, there’s nothing wrong with it per se. The upstairs cafe area has ample seating outside of peak hours. But I just don’t have a good reason to work here over the Roastery. The Pie Hole Los Angles Karuizawa The best (and only) pecan pie that I’ve had in Japan. The name of this place is a mouthful. Technically, it shouldn’t be on this list because I’ve never worked out of it. But they have wonderful pie, free wifi, and not many customers, so I could see working here. The chairs are a bit uncomfortable though, so I wouldn’t want to stop by for more than an hour or two. While this place had been on my radar for a while, I’d avoided it because there’s no good bicycle parking nearby—-or so I thought. I just found that the relatively close Church Street shopping street has a bit of bicycle parking off to the side. If you come to Karuizawa… When I was living in Tokyo, there were just too many opportunities to meet people, and so I found myself having to frequently turn down offers to go out for coffee. Since moving here, I’ve made some local connections, but the pace has been a lot slower. If you’re ever passing through Karuizawa, do get in touch, and I’d be happy to meet up for a cafe latte and possibly some pie.