In Japan 25 percent of workers work 80 hours a week; that means if they are working six days a week it makes that they work 13,5 hours daily. Besides, 12 percent of workers in Japan exceeds 100 hours a week; ; that means if they are working six days a week it makes that they work 16,5 hours daily! It is pretty sure that Japanese people work very very much. But on the other hand, in Finland, the Prime Minister of Finland believes that daily working hours should be less than 8 hours in Finland and the Prime Minister of Finland, Sanna Marin, says that daily work should be 6 hours a day and people should work just 4 days a week! These are two different opinions about daily working hours and working days. Which one makes sense? This is an important issue to discuss.
Because of Covid disesase, for more than two years some companies let their workers to work from home. This is a new style of working. People do not go to the company and do their work at home. Because most of the work can be done by computers today, it is possible to do this kind of work. Before working at home, people used to go to their company at nine a.m. in the morning, and work until five or six p.m. and work for eight or nine hours daily. But when they work at home, it does not matter how many hours they work. If they finish the work they have to do in five hours or six hours it is okey.
Working from home showed us that it is possible to work less than eight or nine hours daily and finish your work. So it is possible to work less hours if it is possible for you to finish your work. To me, if the people in Japan could finish their work in eight hours then they do not have to work for 13,5 or 16,5 hours daily. It is hard for any person to work for 13 or 16 hours daily. A normal person can not concentrate to his or her work for 13 or 16 hours. Besides it is not healthy to work that much and it is not productive to work that much.
But working from home is not suitable for every kind of job. For example a doctor has to go to the hospital to do his or her job. It is not possible for a doctor to work from home. Similarly a worker working in a car factory can not work from home; he or she has to go to the factory to make a car.
As a result, if it is possible to do the work in less hours, it should be given permission to the workers to work for less hours and less days.