テレワーク制度の現状 — コロナ後の在宅勤務とハイブリッド

The 2020 novel coronavirus outbreak fundamentally changed Japan's work styles. Telework in particular spread rapidly, and as of 2025 — five years on — "two to three days a week of hybrid" has become the mainstream. This article divides the analysis into three phases — pre-COVID, COVID crisis, and post-COVID — and organizes the current state and challenges of the remote work system.

Up to 2019, telework adoption in Japan stayed below 10%. According to a Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications survey, company telework introduction rates in fiscal 2019 reached about 20%, but the share of employees actually using it was very small. The background was the long-standing business customs of "seal culture," paper documents, FAX, and the assumption that coming to the office is normal — and many companies lacked IT infrastructure.

In April 2020, when the government issued its first state of emergency declaration, telework implementation rates exceeded 40%, centred on the metropolitan area. Many companies shifted to fully remote five days a week, and adoption of Zoom, Slack, and electronic-contract services advanced rapidly. The phrases "seal commute" and "document commute" were coined, and the inefficiency of specially going in to the office just for paper and seals attracted attention as a social issue.

At present, with COVID having settled, fully remote work has declined, and "two to three days in the office plus the rest at home" hybrid work has become the mainstream. Many companies concentrate office days on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, while increasingly people use remote Mondays and Fridays combined with the weekend for longer breaks. Hybrid is supported because the proper division — focus work at home, brainstorming and one-on-ones face to face — is directly tied to productivity.

Telework adoption rates show large differences by industry. The IT and information and communications industry continues telework at over 60%, the highest level. On the other hand, manufacturing has essential factory-floor work that is hard to telework, and retail, food service, logistics, healthcare, and elderly care are basically in-office on principle. The work-style gap between these "essential workers" and white-collar jobs has become a new social issue.

Around 2024, return-to-office moves spread, centred on major IT companies. Representative examples are: Mercari introduced a system requiring two office days a week as a principle; GMO Internet Group made three office days mandatory in some departments; the most symbolic is Rakuten, which switched to four office days a week as a principle in 2022 and later returned to a near-100% office policy. Cited reasons for the return include "revival of serendipitous communication," "difficulty of training new hires," and "maintenance of company culture."

As remote work became established, allowance systems were also developed. The going rate for remote-work allowances is ¥5,000 to ¥15,000 per month, subsidising electricity, communication fees, and equipment purchases. On the other hand, conventional commuting allowances (provision of commuter passes) are shrinking, and more companies are switching to "actual-expense settlement" (paying round-trip fares only on days attended). This reduces commuter-pass costs of tens of thousands of yen per month, but for some employees, take-home pay decreases, so careful system design is necessary.

Working in "third places" — neither home nor office — is also spreading. The representative example is coworking spaces such as WeWork, where companies sign corporate contracts and employees can use any location nationwide. They are saviours for people without a focused environment at home, or parents in households with small children. Private booths in front of stations (TeleCube, Station Booth, etc.) are also utilized exclusively for business meetings and web conferences; their feature is being easily usable for a few hundred yen per hour.

The spread of telework also greatly affected the choice of "where to live." More people relocated to Nagano, Yamanashi, Shizuoka, and Okinawa to avoid Tokyo rents and commute times, and "two-base life" (dual life) also became a boom. Workation (Work + Vacation) is a work style of doing work at a vacation destination, and tourist-area hotels sell dedicated plans equipped with Wi-Fi and workspaces. Local governments are also active in offering relocation-support funds and attracting workations, and these are expected to brake population decline.

While telework has many merits, labour-management challenges have also been highlighted. First, the difficulty of time management. The boundary between work and private life becomes vague, raising concerns of hidden long-hour labour spreading. Second, health management. New health risks such as lack of exercise, loneliness, and back pain from sitting all the time are reported. Third, psychological stress. Chitchat with colleagues has decreased, and the number of employees feeling isolation or anxiety about evaluation has increased, raising the importance of mental-health care.

The government has also developed policies supporting telework. The "Digital Garden City Nation Initiative" announced by the Kishida administration in 2021 aims to realize a society where one can receive city-level work, education, and healthcare while remaining in the countryside. Multi-faceted measures are being advanced — 5G network development, nationwide fibre rollout, DX support for rural companies. Telework has become a strategic theme tied to national issues — population decline, single-pole concentration, and rural revitalization — beyond a mere work-style option.