Japan is now moving to more telecommuting not just to avoid a pandemic flu outbreak but to adjust to an aging society and to encourage women to continue working after giving birth according to reports.
The government aimed to raise the number of Japanese teleworkers to about 20 percent of the entire workforce by 2010, from the current level of about 10 percent, or 6.7 million people, officials said.
The plan would make it easier for people with children or disabilities to work and would improve the balance between people’s work and personal lives, a cabinet office official said. “By utilising information technology, we expect that female workers in particular … will be able to keep working.”
Unless the birth rate increases, the population and the economy will shrink by 30% over the next 40 years. This demographic change demands that women not find work a disincentive to child bearing and also requires as many people to continue in the workforce as long as possible.
Most plans only allow working from home part time.
Among western nations the US is one of the few that is barely replacing itself and staving off a “demographic winter”.
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