Working from home during the COVID‐19 state of emergency in Japan

Abstract

AbstractThis study examines the impact of working from home on how the working hours of full‐time employees varied by task characteristics during the first COVID‐19 state of emergency in Japan. One of the employment issues during the COVID‐19 pandemic was which type of job maintained working hours despite the spread of infection. Research in various countries argued that working from home effectively maintained normal business operations without interruption. However, Japan's situation regarding working from home and maintaining working hours during the pandemic differed. Under the first state of emergency, the government strongly promoted work‐from‐home measures for office workers, regardless of the tasks they were responsible for at their workplaces. In cases where a task was incompatible with working remotely, work stagnated or ceased entirely, which was reflected in the hours worked. This study considered shortened work hours by not maintaining full‐time work hours during the emergency period as an indicator of the dysfunctional state of business operations. The results demonstrated that work‐from‐home arrangements resulted in shortened work hours if the tasks of workers were incompatible with the scheme. We further revealed a tendency in which work‐from‐home arrangements were discontinued after the emergency period when it involved shortened work hours during the emergency period. The results suggested that work‐from‐home settings are not sustainable beyond emergency situations unless business operations function as indicated by maintaining full‐time work hours.