Photo/Illutration Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike speaks at the Tokyo prefectural assembly on Dec. 3. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

To attract and retain personnel, prefectural governments across Japan are increasingly shifting to a flexible work-style system that allows employees to take three days off a week.

According to a survey conducted by The Asahi Shimbun, the Tokyo metropolitan government and many prefectural governments have either introduced or are planning to incorporate the system in the near future.

Their objective is to make work styles be more flexible to secure human resources.

However, some prefectural governments still are hesitant to introduce the system, concerned about the impact on the services they provide to residents.

In the three-days-off-a week system, employees decide their work schedule using a flextime system and allocate their work time so that they can take one weekday off. 

They can take three days off in a row as long as their total weekly work hours don’t change. So, their salary remains the same.

In the survey, the Tokyo metropolitan and every prefectural government were asked if they had introduced the flex work system from the end of last year to January this year.

Ibaraki, Chiba and Hyogo prefectural governments reported that they had introduced the system in 2024. Osaka and Nara have utilized it since January this year.

In addition, Tokyo and numerous other prefectural governments reported plans to introduce the work system.

Tokyo, Iwate, Akita, Gunma, Saitama, Nagano and Tottori will start it in April this year, while Aichi will adopt it in January 2026 and Miyagi by the end of March 2026.

Meanwhile, many prefectural governments reported that they don’t have concrete plans to introduce the system, saying, “We will remain watching how things go nationwide.”

The Ibaraki prefectural government introduced the system in April 2024, ahead of any other prefectural government nationwide.

In many cases, Ibaraki officials work two more hours per day to maintain the same total weekly working hours while still taking a weekday off.

Only 28 of about 7,000 officials use the system, and the 28 use it for self-development, child-rearing and alleviating work-related fatigue.

Meanwhile, the Chiba prefectural government reported that 155 of about 7,400 employees of its governor’s branch have used the system in the first six months since its introduction.

“There has been much positive feedback from employees such as they were able to use the day off for child-rearing, nursing care for their family, their personal studies and hobbies,” an official said.

The internal affairs ministry has issued a notice to Tokyo and prefectural governments calling for establishing flextime systems with the promotion of the three-days-off-a-week system in mind.

The central government is also scheduled to introduce the system starting in fiscal 2025 as part of work-style reforms.

(This article was written by Natsuno Otahara, Yuka Honda and Azusa Ito.)

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