Tokyo is giving its employees a 4-day workweek to try to boost record-low fertility

Japan has a declining fertility rate. 

As Japan grapples with a record-low fertility rate, Toyko’s government is trying new strategies to try to encourage women to have more children.

The capital’s government is introducing a four-day workweek starting in April next year, in effect offering state employees a three-day weekend.

The policy applies to the more than 160,000 employees of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, one of Japan’s largest employers.

“We will continue to review work styles flexibly to ensure that women do not have to sacrifice their careers due to life events such as childbirth or child-rearing,” Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said in a speech on Wednesday, according to a translation by the Japan Times.

The local government also said that it would allow parents with children in grades one to three of elementary school to sacrifice some of their salaries in order to finish work early each day.

The Japan Times said this would allow parents to reduce their working hours by up to two hours a day.

The measures intend to ease the burden of child-raising for working mothers.

“Empowering women, a goal that has lagged far behind the rest of the world, has been a long-standing issue in our country,” Koike said, per the Japan Times.

Japan is one of the oldest countries in the world, with its population rapidly aging due to a combination of long life expectancies and low fertility rates.

Japan’s fertility rate sank to a record low of 1.2 in 2023, far below the global replacement rate of about 2.1.

The replacement level is generally required to sustain a population over time, barring massive fluctuations in mortality rates or large-scale immigration.

According to Japan’s Health and Welfare Ministry, 758,631 children were born in the country last year, the eighth consecutive year of decline.

Then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called the decline “the biggest crisis Japan faces.”

The International Monetary Fund said in May that many reasons contributed to the decline in fertility rate and births, including later and fewer marriages, as well as the high cost of living, a large gender wage gap, and expensive childcare.

Japan’s government has spent billions on initiatives aimed at reversing these trends, such as improving access to childcare services and promoting egg freezing.

The local government in Toyko announced earlier this year the launch of a dating app that requires users to verify their income and desire to get hitched, in the hope of fostering more marriages.

Meanwhile, other Asian countries grappling with similar declines in marriage and fertility rates have introduced their own creative methods to try to help single people find a match.

South Korea, for example, is spending heavily on preventing loneliness, as well as offering money to reverse vasectomies and providing subsidies to new parents.