【Aging, safety net and fiscal crisis in Japan】No.244: Prevalence of telework before the COVID-19 pandemic

Telework (sometimes called "remote work") has been attracting attention as a way to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in commuter trains and in workplaces. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications defines telework as "a flexible work style that enables the effective use of time and place by using information and communication technology." The Ministry surveys telework by classifying it into three types: mobile work, work from home, and work at a satellite office. Mobile work refers to work without being fixed in a place by making full use of mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. Work from home literally refers to working from home. Work at a satellite office entails working at a business base that is away from the head office, which may be installed in the suburbs or in rural areas.

The Ministry surveyed and announced the prevalence of teleworking in September 2019. As shown in Figure 1, 20.2% of the 2,118 companies surveyed had already implemented teleworking, and 9.4% had plans to introduce it. These percentages are expected to rise significantly in the 2020 survey. The prevalence rate was highest in the information/communications and finance/insurance industries (Figure 2). It is worth noting that among the companies which have implemented telework, the percentage of those who adopted work from home increased from 29.9% in 2017 to 50.4% in 2019 (Figure 3).

Figure 1 Utilization ratio of telework

Figure 2 Utilization ratio of telework by industry

Figure 3 Types of telework utilization