The Daily Manila Shimbun

 

Annual Telework Day launched

July 24, 2017

TOKYO- Some 900 businesses and groups joined a public-private joint campaign launched in Japan on Monday to encourage employees to work at home or outside the office in an effort to ease commuting congestion and promote flexible work styles.
Monday marked the inaugural day of the Telework Day campaign, in which the government designates July 24 every year as the day to promote such work-style reforms.
The campaign will last until July 24, 2020, the date of the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. Traffic congestion is expected during the games.
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.  group firms and Internet portal Yahoo Japan Corp. were among the companies that participated in the campaign on the inaugural day.
The human resources department at NTT Data Corp.'s head office in Tokyo's Koto Ward remained quiet past 8:30 a.m. (11:30 p.m. Sunday GMT), when many workers usually come to work. Some 2,900 employees at the company used teleworking.
"Using cutting-edge technologies, we can work safely at home," NTT Data director Keiichiro Yanagi said. "Working in cool regions in summer may become a common work style in the future," he said.
The Telework Day campaign is promoted by the central and Tokyo metropolitan governments as well as the business community. (Jiji Press)