By Akiko Kobayashi, Chief Researcher, ICT & Finance

(The original article in Japanese was posted in Julyl 2022)

 

The request to write this column seems to come once in two years. Last time I wrote in April 2020 was about telework that I experienced for the first time amid pandemic. Now that in 2022, remote working has already become a system admitted at Yano Research Institute, and I am writing this at home. There has been full argument on which is right, telework or working at office during the past two years, but I would like to think about it once again.

Two pieces of news have encouraged me to address telework as a topic. One is the announcement by NTT Group in June 2022 to introduce telework-based new working styles: It allows the employees to live anywhere in Japan, permitting even commuting by airplane depending on the location. The second is, by contrast, about the news in May 2022 about Honda to switch the workplace from the remote-based to office-based in principle.
Both the news has attracted attention. Many office workers have appraised of the declaration by NTT Group as “Great,” and “How envious!” On the other hand, they have been shocked by Honda’s decisions by uttering, “Does it mean to uniformly force commuting?” “It reminds us of Elon Musk demanding Tesla employees to commute.” I would like to supplement that Honda continues to allow telework to some employees who are in the middle of raising children or of long-term care, and that it does not oblige to commute like being reported in some media.

Commuting was normal for office workers until before the pandemic. Many people who had no choice but to commute made a long queue to enter railway stations whenever train stopped in typhoons and during snowfalls. It was a dream to work at home until only three years ago. After looking back the past, how efficient it has become to be able to work at home. In the IT industry to which I have taken charge for research target at Yano, not only NTT Group but many other companies including mercari and Yahoo Japan deploy telework as their basic workstyle to be flexible.
On the other hand, there are not a few companies that regress from making telework as their basic working styles. Rakuten Group is said to have increased the commuting days from 3 days to 4 days a week mainly in the Tokyo headquarters since November 2021. Such a trend is not limited to major companies that make news. When I surveyed from the late last year to the beginning of this year about deployment of telework, it resulted in a considerable number of companies abolishing the telework system, regardless of corporate size, after the end of corona crisis. In fact, as the infection cases declined, the commuting trains in Tokyo have started to crowd like they used to.

The reason why Honda and Rakuten resumed commuting is because to increase communications. The most significant challenge for teleworking is fewer communications. In particular, as Japan has high-context culture (the culture depending on context and backdrop rather than verbal communications), online communications seem not to be compatible. It is conceded that online conference or chats cannot compete with face-to-face communications in internal discussions or when building business relationships. Because telework increases the business opportunities for IT industry, many vendors has emphasized that the changes in workstyles are irreversible, recommending many solutions to help going online and digitalization by .  Hereafter, they may need to make an approach of approving to "be back to original statuses".

After having experienced both teleworking and commuting, I do not think it is right to let telework to be just the dream in the past. When it comes to the argument of what the future workstyles should be, it tends to end up with “hybrid of teleworking and commuting is the most appropriate.” In such a case, face-to-face communications tend to be overestimated, which may fall into a concern of unnecessary commuting. Before the corona crisis when everyone commuted, how many companies were able to confidently say that communications facilitated in bonding employees together, letting affluent ideas to flow? Honda has “three realities principle” of place, product and reality that continues from the days of its founder Soichiro Honda, prioritizing face-to-face communications, which is understandable for the company to have made the workstyle policy decision stemming from the company’s original management philosophy.
Although it is clear from each survey that the majority of workers wish to continue telework even after the end of corona crisis, telework in Japan is just like the clothes not completely fit and not quite used to it. It is important to deploy it by taking time to consider communications, management, and evaluations toward new organizational operations.