Driver overtime cap introduced as worker shortage worsens

This is a joke! Unpaid overtime should be abolished completely! Japan or should I say Japanese business owners need to go into rehab over their addiction to unpaid overtime!

18hrs OT a week drops a 2000 yen an hour wage to 1380yen per hour! Not to mention the psychological and physical damage this kind of work life balance leads to! Absolutely shameless!

Lots of Japanese trucks would not qualify as trucks,imagine driving a Kenworth or Peterbilt in Shinjuku,it not happening

Under the law on workstyle reform, implemented in 2019, overtime for doctors and drivers will be capped at 960 hours per year, while emergency medical workers can do up to 1,860 overtime hours per year.

1860 hours? Still wondering why Japan have medical worker shortage?

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Japan-projects-shortage-of-nearly-1m-medical-workers-by-2040

Driver overtime cap introduced as worker shortage worsens

Pay them properly, if they need to be paid double because shortage just do it. However that won't crossed Japan Inc mind.

There wouldn't be a problem if people ( actually my wife) stopped ordering things online and bought them from the shops they walk past everyday.

Lots of Japanese trucks would not qualify as trucks,imagine driving a Kenworth or Peterbilt in Shinjuku,it not happening

Why on earth would a massive Kenworth be needed in Shinjuku? Small trucks, especially Kei-trucks, are perfect for delivering food, kegs etc to bars and shops in the small roads and alleys.

There is no worker shortage in Japan.

Japan is already facing a shortage of drivers due to an aging workforce, poor wages in the industry and difficult working hours, while demand for package delivery is increasing.

I'll say it again, businesses that cannot pay living wages, require excessive amounts of overtime from understaffing and cutting corners by management, are failing at business and either be taken over by business that can be run properly and use its assets better.

Or be nationalized and assets forfeited . The latter might be better for key logistical infrastructure.

Under the law on workstyle reform, implemented in 2019, overtime for doctors and drivers will be capped at 960 hours per year, while emergency medical workers can do up to 1,860 overtime hours per year.

Instead there will be some regs whitewashing unpaid overtime, which should be utterly illegal, some subsidies to business that will never be seen by workers and maybe getting more cheap foreign labor.

Overtime in Japan is pretty brutal and unfair for workers. +20 hours of overtime a week basically kills that person's life.

If only younger generations had a voice, or an opinion about anything, and protested.

I have two Japanese brother in law. One is head of his family company, (very) rich and works when he wants to and told me he does not raise salary of his workers.

The other one is working hard, just gets normal rather low wage apparently and can only take one additional day off outside a weekend in the whole year ! He is always tired and if he comes to my country, it would be for 3 days ! (10 000km away)...

My wife says it would be bad from me to tell him I get 7 weeks of paid holidays per year, though I do an average 50 hours per week when working. Many Japanese are just slaves I tell them, without ever self questioning their status.

If only younger generations had a voice, or an opinion about anything, and protested.

That takes courage.

Seems the South Koreans have it but not the youth of Japan.

My wife says it would be bad from me to tell him I get 7 weeks of paid holidays per year, though I do an average 50 hours per week when working. Many Japanese are just slaves I tell them, without ever self questioning their status.

To be fair, French people are known for a poor work ethic and taking half their time off. So you're speaking from one extreme about the other.

To be fair, French people are known for a poor work ethic and taking half their time off. So you're speaking from one extreme about the other.

To be fair, French people have a wonderful work/life balance which the rest of the world should look to emulate particularly Japan.

If only younger generations had a voice, or an opinion about anything, and protested.

How can they form an opinon about anything when they spend their whole waking life either working or recovering from the trauma of working?

Personally I believe there are worker shortages in Japan. On a micro level, you can avoid them by paying workers more and giving them more holidays, but doing so may make you uncompetitive. Hands up everyone who's built a house in Japan and wishes they'd pay more for it and waited longer for it to be ready to give the staff more days off.

In terms of efficiency and productivity, I reckon the real issue is the seishain one. A more fluid labour market would let better workers flow to better companies and worse companies would go to the wall. Seishain status means it can seem better to stick with the devil (company) you know, especially if a prospective new company wants you to work for 6 months at 250,000 yen to prove that you can do the job you've been doing for 10 years and talked about knowledgably in the interview. Prospective new companies may need to do this because making the wrong person a seishain means being stuck with someone incompetent for decades to come. Job security should be based on competence and diligence, which most Japanese do have, not on a magic piece of paper marked "seishain".

This is another example of corporations getting massive profits in a booming industry which doesn't want to increase wage of the labor. Government should step in and increase minimum wage and should be more strict about overtime (cap should be 5h not 18h, this is beyond ridiculous).

To be fair, French people are known for a poor work ethic and taking half their time off.

Some people really need help. They would think something or be persuaded about it without having any idea on what they are talking about. Where did you get that from? The per-hour labor productivity in France is far higher than in Japan so how do you reconcile that with your BS statement?

https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h01196/

Japan has the lowest productivity among the G7 nations and this has been for decades. Speak about work ethic, huh? Stop it, you are grotesque with your laughably wrong vision of the world and your silly submission to Japan.

To be fair, French people are known for a poor work ethic and taking half their time off. So you're speaking from one extreme about the other.

When I lived and worked in France, we worked hard. Nonsense I think.

Just pointing out a known stereotype.

Lots of Japanese trucks would not qualify as trucks,imagine driving a Kenworth or Peterbilt in Shinjuku,it not happening

actually Japanese large trucks have equally sized engines as the US 13L 15L straight 6 average 4-600hp, the only difference is that theyre cabovers as Japan has length restrictions, US has a weight restrigtion of 80000lb 36 tonne, I see trucks trailers in Japan that haul steel at over 40-44 tonnes.

Japan trucks can actually haul heavier loads legally. Same goes with the EU mostly cabovers due to length restrictions.

Austrlia is probably the least restrictions, road trains un to 52.5 m weight up to 120 tonnes

Just pointing out a known stereotype.

That's helpful to elevate the discussion.

That's helpful to elevate the discussion.

It was providing context for this comment:

My wife says it would be bad from me to tell him I get 7 weeks of paid holidays per year, though I do an average 50 hours per week when working. Many Japanese are just slaves I tell them, without ever self questioning their status.

Introducing an overtime cap for delivery drivers is a positive step towards addressing the worker shortage issue in Japan's delivery industry.

Hopefully, it will lead to better working conditions and improved job satisfaction for drivers.

Many years ago I used to drive trucks, believe me working 60 hours a week is tiring, it's not just the time at work, you have got to consider time getting to work, this could be another 30-40 each way, this hardly gives you any time to eat, rest or sleep, I was constantly tired. I am glad I gave it up! As for ordering stuff online, may be customers will have to change there attitude to instant goods, 24-7, as for another poster said, just go to the shops and buy it. If Japan wants more workers, how about dismissing all or some of the hanko stampers? What a waste of time they are, as for working for nothing for one or two hours a day, hahaha, this has to stop immediately, it's screwing up the economy

Near me there is a big Japanese car manufacturer, when they opened the plant many years ago the English work force realised that they didn't get paid the compulsory two hours over time, so they all walked out, the Japanese bosses could not understand why, they were so useless to taking the xxxx out of there own work force they didn't expect it, after a month or so all of the staff got paid and everyone went back to work, the moral of the story is companies can afford to pay its work force its that they chose not to

"...the Japanese bosses could not understand why, they were so useless [sic] to taking the xxxx out of there own work force..."

Useless? Did you intend to write, 'used to'...?

The per-hour labor productivity in France is far higher than in Japan so how do you reconcile that with your BS statement?

Per-hour labor productivity is a metric, but it has flaws. For example, suppose Japanese workers make two Toyotas and French workers make one Renault. Because European brands are considered premium, the one Renault costs 5 Toyotas. Of course, even 2 Toyotas are probably more useful than one Renault, but on the productivity scale the French would be shown to have an advantage because of how expensive the Renault is.

@Kazuaki

The flaws of the metric is that Japanese don't measure the real overtime, which is also huge, but still with low productivity does not catch-up French standards who have limited working hours.

Money for large companies and bosses is not needed to be happy, I guarantee you.