Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

cnn.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 367 posts

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#81

Post by encoderer »

chachacharge wrote: post #50
7thaccount wrote: post #2

That sounds....huge. I know many working couples where one would probably take that in a heartbeat. You lose some money, but gain more family time and sanity. Having Friday to finish chores and being able to enjoy the weekend unstressed is huge, not to mention clocking out early each day to be able to pick up your kid and not have to get back to work or whatever.

I kind of doubt this will be adopted practically in Japan. The old people get time off and leave work early in Japan by privilege and the young break themselves and any rule they need to permit it. The young would even lie about taking time off to make the boss look good, even taking less pay to sell the lie. Who can have kids when you already have to change everyone's diaper.

Fascinating. Is the loyalty reciprocated?

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#82

Post by ativzzz »

nkzd wrote: post #45
reverendsteveii wrote: post #29

I feel like it's been a long time fretting over falling birth rates and this is the first time I've seen anyone float the idea that making life better for people might make them a bit more inclined to make more people.

I am not sure about this one. In the past, quality of life was terrible compared to modern life but fertility was not an issue.

I imagine that birth control as well as the giant array of entertainment options available to us other than sex contributes to modern fertility

Why do poorer people have more kids? Sex is free, birth control and netflix is not

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#83

Post by jmward01 »

This focuses on fertility, but the bigger deal here is it creates jobs. Because when you reduce the availability of labor you create more jobs and spur the economy. Not only will more people have jobs, but they will have more time to spend money. So this is potentially a win for the local economy.

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#84

Post by supplied_demand »

lenerdenator wrote: post #46
WillyWonkaJr wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great argument for individual retirement accounts rather than using the young to pay for the elderly. In the United States, if everyone's social security tax were put in an index fund, then everyone would be millionaires upon retirement. There are solutions other than pleading with people to have more kids.

The idea behind OASDI (Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance), more commonly known as Social Security, is not that you retire a millionaire. It's the US government saying "since we are a wealthy nation, we will not let you spend your elderly years destitute." That's it. That's literally all it is. It was meant to keep grandpa from being a burden on his family when he was too old to work, which in the 1930s mea…

==Since then the American public has seen it as a nice little bonus they get for living past 65 and has started stealing from younger generations in the form of sovereign debt in order to maintain that instead of treating it like the insurance policy it actually is.==

Social Security has it's own funding stream, a tax on wages earned. It does not add to the deficit or increase borrowing. If the funding dries up, the benefits are reduced. This is the Social Security cliff we hear about all the time.

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#85

Post by barbazoo »

Aeolun wrote: post #76

As much as I enjoy the concept, it’s already nearly impossible to get any goverment work done in Japan without taking a day off yourself. Everything government is open 9 to 5 and no more. It’d be more exciting if this was basically anywhere else, but I guess we have to start somewhere.

Hopefully the workers don't all take off the same day and the company backfills the hours with new 4 days/week workers.

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#86

Post by barbazoo »

WillyWonkaJr wrote: post #58
brtkdotse wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not great if it's 15 million supporting 35 million children, elderly and sick.

Here's a case where robotics and other innovations can help out.

A diaper changing robot would take care of both ends of the spectrum, young and old.

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#87

Post by TomK32 »

supplied_demand wrote: post #80
nine_k wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is not the absolute number of people, but the ratio of relatively younger people who work and produce something, and the elderly who already are too frail and can only consume (pensions, medical care, etc). Japan has now fewer productive workers per elderly person than most developed countries.

==Japan has now fewer productive workers per elderly person than most developed countries.== Maybe, over the long run, we could change the expectation that elderly people can't be productive. Perhaps eliminating 20% of the workweek will allow people to maintain careers that are longer? The need to race towards retirement may lessen if we ease the burden of our weekly work schedule.

I don't see many of my 40-ish age who live healthy enough by exercising, going to work by bike or walking instead of car, so they can still be active, let alone productive when they enter retirement age.

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#88

Post by barbazoo »

rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #33
WillyWonkaJr wrote: post #18

Japan is forecast to still have 50 million people in 2120. I wouldn't call this a population crisis. With some rewilding it could be quite pleasant! I suspect companies are afraid of not growing, and governments are afraid to cut spending. Source: https://www.jcer.or.jp/english/new-population-projection-how...

When populations age and shrink, everything becomes more difficult. Fewer working hands have to support more elderly retirees. Less spending means less development, less maintenance, things break down and nobody can afford to fix them. Entire towns and villages slowly wither into nothing. It’s a long, slow, grinding, painful process with no other way around it. And it’s easy to say “maybe that village should disappea…

It's not sustainable. Immigration would help but from what I've heard, it seems that Japan isn't very immigration positive overall.

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#89

Post by beezlebroxxxxxx »

supplied_demand wrote: post #80
nine_k wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is not the absolute number of people, but the ratio of relatively younger people who work and produce something, and the elderly who already are too frail and can only consume (pensions, medical care, etc). Japan has now fewer productive workers per elderly person than most developed countries.

==Japan has now fewer productive workers per elderly person than most developed countries.== Maybe, over the long run, we could change the expectation that elderly people can't be productive. Perhaps eliminating 20% of the workweek will allow people to maintain careers that are longer? The need to race towards retirement may lessen if we ease the burden of our weekly work schedule.

A lot of elderly Japanese already keep working well into old age. Some do it for health reasons (physical and mental), financial reasons, or out of something like civic pride/need to contribute to society. The problem is the sector of jobs that elderly people can't do.
Post reply on HN