Japan looks to jolt consumption by letting workers leave early

3 p.m. on the last Friday of each month

Better than current conditions, but this will not "jolt" anything.

Workers will probably squeeze in the same amount of work, head home exhausted, then sleep.

Clutching at straws, clueless politicians at work again. Economic growth is the only thing that will promote consumer spending.Families have nothing to spend anymore and if they have they are saving it. When was the last time you saw any politician worldwide walking round the supermarket or the streets getting feedback about the economy , price rises , stagnant wages, job security. Instead all you ever hear is rhetoric about how they're going to fix this or do that, problem is people don't believe anymore.

Knowing that there will be an increase in customers on Fridays, stores could increase prices and make it really Premium Friday.

Can we all get a 20 or 30 or 50,000 yen bonus on the last Friday of each month?! I'd be happy to do a bit of shopping and a bit more drinking then.

Rather than cut working hours, I would rather see measures that promote increases in worker productivity.

People typically get paid more when they are more productive. Giving people more time doesn't mean they will have extra money to spend. (Me having extra time doesn't mean me spending extra money.)

They might spend more, if they had more money, which they would have if they were more productive.

It shouldn't be hard to identify 5% of the lowest-value add stuff that is done in Japanese work places, and make it illegal or even just run campaigns against it. (E.g. useless stuff such as writing "yoroshiku onegaishimasu" at the end of every email - imagine the aggregate time save across the nation!)

Past government efforts to jump-start consumption, such as tax breaks in 2009 on energy-efficient appliances, boosted consumer spending but did not drive sustainable growth.

These "jump-start" policy measures are like a wet dream from an economic textbook - sustainable growth never results from them, in reality.

More recently, one-time payments to low-income seniors implemented this year failed to add significantly to spending.

Who'd have thunk it. I dumped my (meagre) exposure to the Japanese stock market in despair when I heard about those plans last November.

You can't spend it if you haven't got it. That wouldn't help all those people working on Japan's minimum wage at all. These people need to work more hours to even survive.

No use of having such a thing in Tokyo ( not Japan )... workers will just flock to the nearest coffee shop or family restaurant and start doing work on their PC in there until the last train or early hours of the morning. Recently, since some companies started having lights out at 10pm rule, the number of people working on their PC or big files in coffee shops or family restaurant or even public sitting areas has also increased dramatically. If you leave around downtown Tokyo area then you will know what I'm talking about. Bottom line is that Japanese workers can't escape from working for such long hours and I do feel that some just don't want to go back home due to various reasons. End result one person uses the table which can sit 4 people thus crowding out cafes and coffee shops as well as public spaces. It's better to let them just work in the office ( atleast they can make some extra money from overtime as a bonus ) !

Why don't they just enforce existing labor standards laws that specify a maximum 44 hrs a week? Many companies routinely work their employees in excess of 100 hrs a month overtime, pay them for 10% of the time, and force them to falsify documents regarding working hours to avoid lawsuits from victims of karoshi. What other society allows companies to do this? Why is it not openly acknowledged, when everyone is aware of the situation?