Corporate agenda seems to have made its way from the boardroom to the bedroom as Japanese are being asked by their employers to knock off early for "family time" in a bid to reverse the country's low birth rate.
Even amid the worst economic recession in generations, Japan’s biggest and most austere banking group, Mitsubishi UFJ, is telling its staff to knock off early. In a round-robin e-mail for its employees, the bank said the national birthrate is low, so let’s all enjoy "family time".
"The company is constantly telling us to do things, but I think this is the first time the corporate agenda has made its way to the bedroom," a woman, who works on the bank’s Tokyo trading floor, was quoted as saying by The Times newspaper today.
"I’m not sure how many more babies will be conceived this week, but the bar next door to the headquarters should do well," she added.
However, MUFJ is taking the campaign seriously. The unambiguous note of encouragement heralded Mitsubishi UFJ’s week-long effort to push the national campaign to help reverse Japan’s ultra-low fertility rates and declining population.
The management’s idea, the woman said, seemed to be that by getting everyone out of the office by 5.10 PM, rather than the 7 PM that most staff were used to, couples would be reunited earlier after work, passion would not be crushed by exhaustion and Japan’s chronic population decline would be reversed.
At only 1.3 per cent in 2007, Japan’s fertility rate — the average number of children for each woman aged between 15 and 49 — is among the lowest in the world. Nearly a quarter of the population is over the age of 65. Advertisement
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