Tokyo is turning to a 4-day workweek in a desperate attempt to help Japan shed its unwanted title of ‘world’s oldest population’

Japan is facing a population crisis—so Tokyo, its largest city, will try to solve the problem with something new: a four-day workweek.

Starting in April, the Tokyo Metropolitan government, one of the country’s largest employers, is set to allow its employees to work only four days a week.It is also adding a new “childcare partial leave” policy, which will allow some employees to work two fewer hours per day.The goal is to help employees who are parents balance childcare and work, said Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike.

“We will continue to review work styles flexibly to ensure that women do not have to sacrifice their careers due to life events such as childbirth or child-rearing,” Koike said in a speech during the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly’s regular session, the Japan Times reported.

The new policies come as the birth rate in Japan hit a record low in 2024.From January to June, the country recorded 350,074 births, down 5.7% from the same period in 2023, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare.

Japan isn’t the only country facing declining fertility.According to the New Yorker, by 2100, 97% of the world’s countries are predicted to be below replacement, or the number of births required to maintain a stable population.South Korea has the lowest fertility rate in the world, and dog strollers outsold baby strollers there last year.While the UN predicts the global population will continue to grow long into this century, some pro-natalists (including, notably, world’s richest man and father of 13 Elon Musk) worry declining birth rates are the world’s biggest looming problem.

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Japan’s total fertility rate, which represents the number of children a woman has in her lifetime, stood at 1.2 in 2023, and in Tokyo, the birth rate was even lower at 0.99.

To maintain a broadly stable population, a birth rate of 2.1 is required, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The median age of a Japanese citizen is 49.9, according to the Central Intelligence Agency. In the U.S., the median age is 38.9.

((Niger has a median age of 15 years, meaning that half of the population is younger than 15 and half is older))

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