Leave early on Friday, spend more, Japanese workers told

Leave early on Friday, spend more, Japanese workers told

Office workers are reflected in a window as they cross the street during lunch hour in Tokyo. (Reuters Photo)
Office workers are reflected in a window as they cross the street during lunch hour in Tokyo. (Reuters Photo)

TOKYO: The Japanese government and businesses are kicking off a campaign to get people to spend more money by allowing them to finish work early on the last Friday of every month.

However, only a limited number of companies are expected to take part in the first "Premium Friday" next week.

The impact of the once-a-month campaign on the economy is likely to be limited because of low participation and because many of those who do leave work early are expected to go straight home and spend their evenings there.

Premium Friday took its cue from Black Friday in the United States, the frenzied shopping period just after the Thanksgiving holiday, which falls on the last Thursday of November. Japanese companies are being encouraged to allow their employees to finish work around 3 or 4pm on the last Friday of each month so they will go out and spend more money on shopping, dining and other leisure activities.

Department stores and restaurants are gearing up to offer discounts and special menus to people who come in from late Friday afternoon. Travel agencies are offering two-night-stay travel packages in which participants leave for destinations late Friday afternoon.

But informal surveys show only a limited number of companies are expected to shorten the workday at the end of next week.

In an online survey conducted in January by the travel agency DeNA Travel Co, only 2% of respondents said their companies either had adopted the campaign or were planning to do so, and 3% said their employers were considering doing so.

The three organisations that have led the Premium Friday campaign -- the industry ministry, the Keidanren and the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry -- have no figures on how many companies have signed up.

One company that alreadfy has a similar programme is the Tokyo-based pharmaceutical maker Astellas Pharma Inc. It says it has learned that the arrangement does not negatively affect its earnings, and that it needs to change the way its employees work to make the programme work.

Astellas began "Family Friday" in April 2009, under which employees are urged to finish work at 4pm every Friday. They have made use of the time to watch films, go shopping and dine with friends, it said.

Initially the company met resistance from some workers who said they were working overtime because they wanted to do so, or who said they wanted to work at their own pace.

But executives in charge of Family Friday tried to convince them of the merits of the programme, such as more time to spend with their families and the chance of finding inspiration from meeting with people outside the company, according to the drugmaker.

At the same time, the company reduced the number of meetings and encouraged its employees to share work among colleagues in a bid to change the way they work and so that more of them can get off work early. But some employees still need to work overtime on Fridays because of the need to contact customers, it said.

"There's a limit to what one company can do," a public relations executive at Astellas said. "I hope [Premium Friday] will serve as an opportunity for more companies to implement the going-home-early-on-Fridays programme."

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