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Do Japanese Work Shorter Hours than before?: Measuring Trends in Market Work and Leisure Using 1976-2006 Japanese Time-Use Survey

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  • Kuroda, Sachiko

Abstract

Using Japanese time-use data from the Survey on Time Use and Leisure Activities (STULA), this paper measures trends in average hours worked (market work) and leisure for Japanese over the past three decades. OECD reports at least a 15 percent decline in market work for Japan since the 1970s. However, holding demographic changes constant, we found that market work per week increased from the 1970s until mid 1980s, and has been relatively stable for the last two decades for both male and female full-time workers. Furthermore, although the market work per week remained relatively constant since the mid 1980s, we found a significant change in the allocation of time to market work within the week during the period. Specifically, when dividing samples into weekdays (Monday through Friday) and weekends (Saturday and Sunday), average hours spent for market work per weekday among full-time males increased by 0.4 hour since the mid 1980s, whereas a significant decline in market work on Saturday was observed. This suggests that people shifted their work time from Saturday to weekdays in response to the reduced work week introduced by the amendment of the Labour Standards Act at the end of 1980s. In the meantime, commuting time and home production had decreased by 3 hours since the mid-1980s for full-time female workers, indicating that the average hours of leisure had increased for females even though market work remained the same. Interestingly, however, hours for sleep declined consistently over the last three decades, resulting in a 3-4 hour reduction per week for both male and female workers. Lastly, a comparison of Japanese and US time use data suggests that Japanese work much longer than their American counterparts. On average, Japanese males work 8.6 hours longer per week, and Japanese females 6.5 hours longer, than Americans, even after adjusting for demographic differences between the countries.

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File URL: http://hermes-ir.lib.hit-u.ac.jp/rs/bitstream/10086/17113/1/pie_dp419.pdf
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Paper provided by Center for Intergenerational Studies, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University in its series PIE/CIS Discussion Paper with number 419.

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Length: 44 p.
Date of creation: Mar 2009
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:hit:piecis:419
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  1. Daniel S. Hamermesh & Stephen J. Trejo, 1997. "The Demand for Hours of Labor: Direct Evidence from California," NBER Working Papers 5973, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  2. Bell, D. & Hart, R.A., 1998. "Unpaid Work," Working Papers Series 9803, University of Stirling, Division of Economics.
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  3. Edward C. Prescott, 2004. "Why do Americans work so much more than Europeans?," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, issue Jul, pages 2-13.
  4. Jennifer Hunt, 1999. "Has Work-Sharing Worked in Germany?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 114(1), pages 117-148.
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  6. Olivier Blanchard, 2004. "The Economic Future of Europe," NBER Working Papers 10310, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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  8. Keiichiro Kobayashi & Masaru Inaba, 2005. "Business Cycle Accounting for the Japanese Economy," Discussion papers 05023, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
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  11. Fumio Hayashi & Edward C. Prescott, 2000. "The 1990s in Japan: a lost decade," Working Papers 607, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
  12. Bruno Crepon & Francis Kramarz, 2002. "Employed 40 Hours or Not Employed 39: Lessons from the 1982 Mandatory Reduction of the Workweek," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(6), pages 1355-1389, December.
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Cited by:

  1. Yukawa, Shiho, 2012. "教養娯楽価格が出産に与える影響
    [The Effect of Recreational Goods Price on Fertility]    ," MPRA Paper 35808, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  2. Jungmin Lee & Daiji Kawaguchi & Daniel S. Hamermesh, 2011. "Aggregate Impacts of a Gift of Time," NBER Working Papers 17649, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  3. Kohei Daido & Ken Tabata, 2013. "Social Norms on Working Hours, Work-Life Balance, and Fertility Choice," Discussion Paper Series 108, School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University, revised Sep 2013.
  4. Rieko Nagamachi, 2015. "The Consistency of Japan fs Statistics on Working Hours, and an Analysis of Household Working Hours," Public Policy Review, Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Finance Japan, vol. 11(4), pages 623-658, September.
  5. GENDA, Yuji & KURODA, Sachiko & OHTA, Souichi, 2011. "Does downsizing take a toll on retained staff? An analysis of increased working hours during recessions using Japanese micro data," ISS Discussion Paper Series (series F) f154, Institute of Social Science, The University of Tokyo.
  6. Vinod Mishra & Russell Smyth, 2012. "Work Hours in Chinese Enterprises: Evidence From Matched Employer-Employee Data," Monash Economics Working Papers 10-12, Monash University, Department of Economics.
  7. Kawaguchi, Daiji & Lee, Jungmin & Hamermesh, Daniel S., 2013. "A gift of time," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 205-216.
  8. Genda, Yuji & Kuroda, Sachiko & Ohta, Souichi, 2015. "Does downsizing take a toll on retained staff? An analysis of increased working hours in the early 2000s in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 1-24.

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