According to the latest report, Pokémon game developer Game Freak announced that it will launch a “selective 3-day week off” from April 2022, hoping that employees can take an extra day off Saturday and Sunday for childcare/nursing.
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The system is reportedly aimed at full-time employees who need to support children below primary school or who need home care. Employees can apply on a monthly basis and choose according to their own circumstances.
After the employee chooses to take 3 days off, the working hours per week are 8 hours x 4 days = 32 hours per week, but the base salary and bonus are 80% of the original.
In Japan, companies such as Panasonic and Hitachi are also exploring the “optional three-week-off system”. According to Kyodo News, Japan’s Panasonic Holdings will pilot a “selective three-week-off system” within the year, allowing more than 5,000 non-front-line workers of employees to choose to work four days a week.
Employees who choose to take three days off a week will not change their working hours each day, and wages will be negotiated with the union. Moreover, Japan’s Hitachi will also introduce a new system that allows employees to choose to work only four days a week, hoping to attract more employees by providing more flexible working methods.
Hitachi plans to implement this new way of working for about 15,000 employees in the current fiscal year, which begins this month. But Hitachi’s system differs from that of Panasonic, and Hitachi employees who choose three breaks can choose to work 9-10 hours between Monday and Thursday, instead of the currently required 7 hours and 45 minutes, in exchange for a day off on Friday.
