Percentage of teleworkers Japan 2018-2023

According to a survey conducted in October 2023, almost 25 percent of employed persons in Japan had worked remotely at some point in their current job. The share of respondents who had done telework before peaked in 2021 and has been on a downward trend since then.

Telework in Japan

Telework was not widely spread in Japan before the COVID-19 pandemic. Only 19 percent of businesses offered remote work as an option in 2019. However, the percentage of corporations that had introduced telework more than doubled with the beginning of the pandemic, reaching 47 percent in 2020. Japan’s rigid business culture which emphasizes face-to-face communication was one of the reasons for businesses refraining from offering telework. Low levels of digitalization, reflected in businesses’ reliance on paperwork, and the practice of using hanko seals to sign paper documents in daily business procedures, also held back the spread of more flexible work arrangements.

Unequal access to remote working options

A closer look at the teleworking population in Japan revealed that remote work was most prevalent in the metropolitan areas of Japan. The uptake of telework was particularly high in Tokyo, where more than one-third of workers had worked remotely before. Employees of large corporations were more likely to engage in telework than those working for small and mid-sized businesses. Furthermore, the survey conducted in 2023 revealed a gender gap among remote workers, with a higher share of men than women doing telework.