12 / 414
2016 MTPC keynote speech
12
experience joy, the discussion will be putting the cart before the horse. Innovations to make
working life enjoyable needs to be considered based on a principle of sharing under which
all labor is shared by all members of society, overcoming the conventional thinking,
“division of labor by gender”, which previously dominated Japan.
Recent discussions of work-life balance are beginning to acknowledge the basic concept
of “making work as enjoyable as life”. By reinterpreting work-life balance from the
viewpoint of diversity in the interpretation of “balance”, we will reconsider methods for
realizing “Japanese work-life balance” through the following three steps.
3.1 Step 1: Reducing Meaningless Overtime and Excessive Labor
First, Step 1 is to further advance efforts towards shortening working hours and
increasing the number of workers taking paid annual leave, which in reality is already being
pursued. Efforts in Step 1, work restructuring to reduce meaningless overtime, and the
attempt to enhance work efficiency are two sides of the same coin. As mentioned above,
companies are already undertaking efforts towards shortening working hours and increasing
the number of workers taking paid annual leave, but not necessarily in conjunction with
improving work processes and how work is carried out. Accordingly, it is essential that these
issues be reinterpreted in relation to improvements in how everyday work duties and
business are carried out.
Furthermore, an important point that must be considered in Step 1 is that both labor and
management must make an effort to decrease meaningless overtime and excess labor as
much as possible and increase time for life (such as free time for individuals; life at home,
including interaction with family; social life, including active exchange within the
community; and time spent by individuals on advancing their skills). For example,
introducing a system of shorter working hours for full-time employees is a work style that
could be the key to realizing work-life balance in Step 1. In addition, it is important that
companies be more aware of increasing the number of days on which workers finish work
and leave early, rather than sluggishly continuing with work late into the night. When an
employee’s working life is completely devoted to work in the workplace, it inevitably
follows that work performed in the home, such as housework and other work necessary for
living a human lifestyle, is left up to housewives (or husbands) who are not engaged in
“labor” in the form of company work duties. It goes without saying that, with regard to
aspects of life such as housework, childrearing, and community life, work-life balance also
needs to be considered from the perspective of everyone—both people working in