Japan Govt Survey Finds Just 10％ of Workers Want Working Hours to Increase

The Yomiuri Shimbun

7:00 JST, March 7, 2026

About 60% of workers think their working hours are “fine as they are,” while only 10% want them to increase, according to a government survey released Thursday.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry conducted the survey from October to December asking workers and others about working hours, as part of a comprehensive review of the 2019 work style reform-related law. The law introduced limits on overtime hours — principally 45 hours per month and 360 hours per year. The survey was conducted on 3,000 workers and 327 companies.

According to the results, 59.5% of the workers said that their working hours are “fine as they are,” while 30% responded with “want to reduce” and 10.5% said “want to increase.” Only 0.5% said they wanted to increase overtime hours to more than 80 hours per month, which corresponds to the death from overwork threshold. Over 90% responded that a reasonable monthly overtime limit was 45 hours or less, the upper limit set by the regulations.

Meanwhile, 61.5% of businesses responded that the “current level is fine,” 22.3% said they “want to reduce” working hours and 16.2% responded with “want to increase.”

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has shown enthusiasm for expanding flexible work arrangements and instructed Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Kenichiro Ueno to consider relaxing working hour regulations. The ministry plans to proceed with reviewing the Labor Standards Law based on the survey results.