Fill in the Blanks Reducing Working Hours in JapanOnline version A Fill in the Blanks game about the efforts to reduce working hours in Japan and the challenges faced in doing so. by Dario Gonzalez 1 Both the and companies are now actively trying to reduce the number of here . And there are some early signs of hope . Japan's government has considered several initiatives to curb the number of hours spent at the , including making it mandatory to take at least five a year and requiring a rest period between the end of one day and the start of another . In 2016 , a new holiday , Mountain Day , was started , bringing Japan's number of annual public to 16 . And in 2017 , the government launched an initiative called Premium Fridays , in which it encouraged to allow their to leave at 3 p . m . on the last Friday of the month , promoting consumer spending and less time in the office . But one study found that less than 4% of employees in Japan actually left early on the first Premium Friday . Which is why , despite these initiatives , a cultural still looms . Since Japan's emphasizes the group over the , well , no one wants to be the first one to leave the office . And there's another reason that there's pressure on people to work hard .
New game