Quality time at home!

Japan's prescription to use the sunlight at its maxim has a science of its own. Though many countries across the globe, including the United States and Scandinavian countries, rewind and forward their clocks to make use of daytime and cope with long chill nights, Tokyo’s contribution to it is more in social essence.

While energy factor is of pivotal importance in such decisions, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe believes that workers can spend quality time in the evenings back home by avoiding late working hours. The island-nation state wants government employees, at least, to get to work earlier in the summer to improve their work-life balance. The dictum is not clear as far as the private sector is concerned, which employs the maximum workforce in Japan.

Abe says if the public sector can start as early as 7.30 am and wind up their chores by five in the evening, they will be left with many more hours to spend with their children and parents. Taking into account the commutation time that usually involves in major metropolis like Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka prefecture, where people at large make use of public transport, and then ply their cars to reach their destinations in the outskirts, it is anybody’s guess how much quality time would be left behind.

It is same the case in almost all the major business hubs of the world, including the United Arab Emirates, where commutation to work and back consumes a major share of the day.

Japanese work for an average of 1,745 hours each year, which according to the OECD is much more than their European counterparts. But as far as Japan is concerned, which is one of the most ageing societies in the world, it will be a welcome social aspect to see people getting more time for child-rearing and taking care of the elders. That, in essence, is the intuition of the government.