By YASUYUKI ONAYA/ Staff Writer
January 13, 2022 at 17:14 JST
The building housing Yahoo Japan Corp. headquarters in Tokyo (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Yahoo Japan Corp. is joining the ranks of companies going all in on remote working, announcing on Jan. 12 the lifting of a restriction that required all domestic employees to live within commuting distance of an office.
The company will end the residential requirement on about 8,000 domestic employees and allow them to live anywhere in Japan from April 1.
They will be able to reside in local areas far from company offices, including remote islands.
Yahoo Japan employees have been allowed to telework under the condition that they reside in a location that would allow them to commute to a company office by 11 a.m.
As for remote work sites, it has already allowed employees to work from anywhere, including at home, in Japan. About 90 percent of the employees are currently teleworking.
But Yahoo Japan kept the residential condition in place because the employees could be required to come to a company office in the event of an emergency.
As an exception, it will not lift the residential restriction for some employees who need to work in offices to handle personal or other highly confidential information.
According to Yahoo Japan, the ending of the residential requirement was made possible because the search engine giant improved remote work systems amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Those improvements led to an increase in job-related tasks that the employees do not need to do in the workplace.
Yahoo Japan will also lift a restriction on commuting costs now covered by the company, of up to 6,500 yen ($56) on one-way fares. The upper limit will remain at 150,000 yen per month, but it will permit the employees to travel to offices by air or expressway bus.
Elsewhere in the IT industry, Mercari Inc. made it possible for its workers to live anywhere in Japan last September.
As shortages of IT personnel are being increasingly reported in the industry, more IT firms are aiming to secure a competitive advantage in staff recruitment by offering flexible work styles.
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