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© KYODO60% still go to office despite state of emergency over virus: survey
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kurisupisu
There are many workers who actually don’t sit in front of a screen in order to make a living....
Mayunia82
thepersoniamnow
From Monday things will get stricter.
Fuzzy
The government should apply pressure directly on the management of companies. The employees for the most part are just doing whatever their management tells them. They may want to stay home, but unless their company tells them explicitly to do so, then they feel obliged to go to the office.
dbsaiya
Seal stamping and faxing. Moronic.
Fuzzy
@Burning Bush
This article is about office workers, not physical labour.
Yubaru
Duh! Welcome to Japan, been this way for a couple of decades now!
Yubaru
None of which gets done in the offices of Tokyo!
rainyday
Yup, nobody sneers at the guys doing essential services. But from the article:
I wasn’t aware that affixing seals and sending faxes was so critical it required 70% of the workforce to be in the office.
>
Fuzzy
Yes, and with a laptop, and internet connection and a few pieces of software, the vast majority of them can do what needs to be done from their home.
Do the hustle
There’s a long way to go to reach the 70% target? Just shutdown Nippon Kaigi! They don’t seem to grasp the concept of proactive measures. It’s only reactive, which will end up costing the country ten times more than shutting down for a month.
TheRat
Pukey2
What, so essential workers make up 60% of the working population?
HBJ
So the rest of the developed world has largely managed to be flexible and find workable solutions to this problem, but Japan is as rigid as uncooked spaghetti, and completely unable to change its ways.
This is in many ways no surprise, but when you consider that Japan has been aware for decades of the potential for a massive earthquake hitting the Tokyo region, it is incomprehensible that there isn’t a workable emergency solution for everyone to fall back on.
No Business
I, for one, am glad my company hasn't bought into the ridiculous hype around this new type of flu. I am able to continue earning money for my family, which is the most important thing.
Jijitsu
None of the corporates have a social responsibility in place..
In pandemic situations, social responsibility is to reduce the total number of people coming to office, so that those who essentially have to travel for work, face lesser threat of infection.
The reality of this nation and it's work culture is that even IT employees are asked to report for work, despite facilities for telework being available.
Essential services have to continue, but with office workers and shoppers off the road, they are better off.
The reality is that you can't keep shut downs for a long time... So first you go in for a total shut down, and then open up much later, with soft lockdowns still in place.... Japan is doing it the reverse way.
Monty
I am working at a japanese company with a japanese management for many years.
Simple rule: Come to office or quit!
Nobody in the management cares about what Abe says or how bad the Virus situation is or will be.
As long as the japanese management refuse to jump in the 20th century, nothing will ever change!
Tom
@no business. Yup, there is no business like show business and that is what it has become in a way.
Kazuaki Shimazaki
@FuzzyToday 07:38 am JST
They don't just "feel" obliged. Unless the government gives them an order to stay home, the company explicitly permits or directs it or they have a statutorily valid reason (ex: they are already sick and are now taking sick leave), they are legally obliged to go to the office.
@HBJToday 09:37 am JST
To be fair, if a massive earthquake hits Tokyo, its more likely that computers and advanced connections will be destroyed completely than sheets of paper and hanko.
JeffLee
Dispatching can be done at home on a laptop and, if needed, a portable radio transmitter/receiver. HR, payroll, sales and a host of other duties can be done at home as well.
HBJ
@Kazuaki - That’s not the point. Every company that has an office in Tokyo - especially these huge national and multinational companies that have head offices - must surely have a contingency plan of what to do, and how to continue operating their businesses in an emergency.
If a huge earthquake hits Tokyo and people are literally unable to go to the office because of building destruction, or public transport stopping etc. what will they do?
This situation simply calls for companies to enact that plan now. The fact that it seems they have no solution to physically hanko-ing documents and faxing papers from the office itself suggests to me that almost all companies simply don’t have any contingency plans.
therougou
This is a missed opportunity to do more tests and get companies scared into allowing telework.
garypen
A friend of mine has been doing that exact job for many years...FROM HOME.
Stev
Teleworking from home if the govt wants to defer the spreading of the covid 19.
Fuzzy
@Kazuaki Shimazaki
The point of my post is, urging people (i.e. employees) to not go to the office is meaningless unless the company's management is supporting and even mandating it. My point is, apply pressure in the right places i.e. on the senior management of companies.
Jonathan Prin
We all see even smart Japanese able managers exchanging in these comments sections with other smart managers but foreign cannot and will not change their mind, until the country is ruined (reminds me of the end of a war I forgot the name but for which that country wanted to be counted in...).
Paul Laimal-Convoy
In a world where it's easy to digitally sign PDF files, and even where deliveries to my home in Japan are signed for in tablet devices, there's NO excuse for this.
Arrrgh-Type
And so the current state/non-state of emergency limbo will continue, seemingly for an indefinite amount of time.
hotelstar
If your boss says "don't come to work", you won't.
Slickdrifter
I think workers/companies just need time to plan and accept whats happening with their business. Need time to make preparations. I know I need to at least till the 27th to clear out all existing tasks and clear out the current work load before I can storm shutter the building secure my stocks (Porsche McClaren and many others) We can not just stop suddenly leaving our clients high dry on their JCI or maintenance or deliveries and handovers coming up on vehicles sold. But painfully by 27th I am ordering all who can to work from home to do so. Clients will be one by one basis and will not be allowed in the building. Only in the serive bays with the big 26 foot doors wide open and all fans on. This is the best I can do to keep revenue coming in to pay my people. The Virus sucks so bad. :-(.
Mirchy
I don't understand the number of negative votes per @Burning Bush comment.
Probably some people think that shops, clean water, functioning sewage and electricity are God-given goods.
In our country (Slovenia), such jobs are designated as "risk job" during an epidemic.
By government decree, such work is paid up to 40% more until the state of the epidemic is canceled.
InspectorGadget
"We assume many people still have to go to their office because of their duties, such as seal stamping, faxing"
For a country that prides itself on its technical prowess, Japanese corporate culture often seems like it exists in the 1980's.