Yamato Transport Introduces 3-Day Workweek System

September 19, 2018

Tokyo- Major Japanese parcel delivery company Yamato Transport Co. said Tuesday that it has introduced a work system offering a three-day workweek option for full-time employees who have been at the company for at least one year and raising children, providing nursing care or doing both.

Under the new system, those eligible workers of the Yamato Holdings Co. unit are allowed to select the number of workdays, from three to five days per week and four to eight hours per day, on condition that they work for at least 20 hours a week.

Those aged 50 years or older can also utilize the system in consideration of their decreased physical strength.

It is rare for a major company in Japan to offer a three-day workweek option.

Yamato Transport hopes that the new system will help prevent its workers from quitting for their family matters, company officials said.

Under the existing system, the company allows employees to work for only four hours a day if they work for five days or more per week.

In May, it switched some 5,000 contracted workers to regular employees as part of its efforts to improve working conditions chiefly for its drivers. Jiji Press