[bitontheslide]

When the Japanese government declared an emergency to curb the spread of the coronavirus earlier this month and asked people to work from home, crowds rushed to electronics stores.

So much for social distancing.

Many Japanese lack the basic tools needed to work from home. Contrary to the ultramodern image of Japan Inc. with its robots, design finesse and gadgetry galore, in many respects the country is technologically challenged.

But the bigger obstacle is Japanese corporate culture, experts say. Offices still often rely on faxes instead of email. Many homes lack high-speed internet connections, and documents often must be stamped in-person with carved seals called “hanko,” which serve as signatures. So many Japanese really cannot work remotely, at least not all the time.

A survey by YouGov, a British market researcher, found only 18% of those recently surveyed were able to avoid commuting to school or work, even though a relatively high 80% of people in Japan are afraid of catching the virus.

In India, nearly 70% of those surveyed were staying home. In the U.S., it was about 30%, according to YouGov.

One factor, says Yuri Tazawa, a pioneer in Japan of “teleworking,” or working from home, is that Japanese workers often do not have clearly defined jobs like Americans do, so companies expect their staff to be in constant communication with each other, working as teams.

“But this is a matter of life and death for the workers and their families,” said Tazawa, president of Telework Management Inc. “We need to do immediately what we can do now.”

Tazawa is offering an online crash course on how to immediately start working from home, using just mobile phones, if a personal computer is not available. She calls the approach a “hypothetical cloud office.”

Unlike regular Zoom meetings, in which workers check in and out for discussions, she is proposing using Zoom for just voice connections, keeping it on throughout the work day so that employees who would normally share an office can feel as if they’re in the same room.

“Teleworking is so important in the fight against the coronavirus,” said Tazawa.

Some of Japan’s biggest companies, like Toyota Motor Corp. and Sony Corp., already have announced work-from-home policies. The main problem is with the small and medium-sized businesses which make up about 70% of the economy.

Nicholas Benes, a corporate governance expert who has been offering a free webinar on teleworking for Japanese, said interest was surprisingly low.

A lack of up-to-date IT systems means Japan lags in nurturing flexible work practices, office rules, management methods and even attitudes toward remote work. It’s one factor contributing to relatively low labor productivity.

“Telework requires that managers trust and delegate much more decision-making to employees because it takes too much time in email or Skype to check with the boss,” said Benes, who heads the Board Director Training Institute of Japan, a non-profit that offers management and governance training.

Japanese companies still rely on nuances of face-to-face interaction, or being able to “smell the air,” or “read the air,” Benes said, using common vernacular expressions.

And then, there’s the fax machine.

A third of Japanese households have faxes, according to a government study.

It’s rare to find an office that doesn’t have one, unless it’s a futuristic company like SoftBank that frowns on such old-fashioned practices. Many respectable institutions shun emails and insist on receiving requests for information or other documentation by fax only.

So as the number of coronavirus infections grows, urban commuter trains are only slightly less crowded than their usual jam-packed state.

Futoshi Takami, a “salaryman,” as Japanese workers are called, says he had to work from the office until mid-April, when he was finally told he could work from home. But so far, he’s gotten few directions about what he’s supposed to be doing. He might soon be assigned to take some online classes, he said.

Takami, who asked that his employer not be identified, said he has been doing some soul-searching about workplaces that seem to value rules over human life.

“I am going to devote my time to think about what it is I really want to do with my life,” he said.

https://apnews.com/7a18fb5740f90712195205dd461253c8
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This really surprised me, how backward Japan is

[arista]

"This really surprised me, how backward Japan is "


Not me ,as for many years
Japan has been in a long recession.
Even moving some of their Factory's to China.
The Quality level went down.......................

[Kizzy]

Telephones work as well as the internet as communication..who knew?

Where's our homeworking data?

[Calderyon]

Not surprised.

[Nicky91]

so basically Japan is not as advanced as other asian countries like south-korea

did not know this


yeah not really social distancing, this is a problem what must be dealt with in this crisis, people should work from home so up to that government to make that possible for the people

[Livia]

I think for tech, it's got to be South Korea.

[Tom4784]

Japan is very backwards when it comes to societal issues but I'm surprised that technologically they are behind as well. I always remember hearing that they have the best internet capabilities in the world and assumed that meant that they were probably ahead of us in technology integration.

[Kizzy]

The cultural or current issue aside I'm surprised there is so much negativity around faxes...
Imo they are still a valuable tool, if there was a cyber attack or some such incident that interrupted the flow of information then these would be unaffected wouldn't they?

[arista]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

The cultural or current issue aside I'm surprised there is so much negativity around faxes...
Imo they are still a valuable tool, if there was a cyber attack or some such incident that interrupted the flow of information then these would be unaffected wouldn't they?

Yes thats why they keep them.

I buy 24bit CD's from Japan
better than downloads

[Toy Soldier]

It seems to be less about lack of technology in the home, and more about the way businesses are run and "good business practice" - an unwillingness, rather than inability, to move with the times and a strong sense of tradition. Seems like a lot of homes are "Post-PC" too meaning they have smartphones, tablets, smart-TV, even smart toilets... But may not have a desktop PC or laptop at home. That's something that's starting to become more common in The UK as well. There was a brief time where most households had a computer of some sort, now many are content with just phones and tablets, which are fine for Internet and media purposes but trying to work from home on one must be a nightmare.

[Kizzy]

Maybe it's a trust issue to an extent too, We have no qualms about putting sensitive or valuable information into the ether where it can be phished or in some way shared or stolen?