Japanese scheme will keep folks on the job ... at home
May 30, 2007
By From AFP
Tokyo - Japan yesterday set an ambitious goal of doubling the number of teleworkers clocking on from home within three years, as part of its efforts to cope with an ageing society.
Japan, which has widespread broadband internet access, hopes the move will encourage more women to continue working after giving birth.
The government aimed to raise the number of Japanese teleworkers to about 20 percent of the entire workforce by 2010, from the current level of about 10 percent, or 6.7 million people, officials said.
The plan would make it easier for people with children or disabilities to work and would improve the balance between people's work and personal lives, a cabinet office official said. "By utilising information technology, we expect that female workers in particular … will be able to keep working."
Japan's population is expected to shrink by 30 percent in the next 40 years unless the country reverses its falling birth rate, according to a government report released in December.
Many young Japanese are putting off starting families, believing they are burdens to their careers.
Some Japanese companies, faced with growing shortages of skilled labour, have already been turning to the internet to allow people to work from home.
Hi-tech giant Matsushita Electric Industrial recently announced a telework programme that would allow nearly half of its employees in Japan - 30 000 people - to work from home once or twice a week.
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