Japan moved to remote work late and partly. Before 2020 it was rare outside large technology and consulting firms. The pandemic forced it in, and then much of it receded: the land and transport ministry's annual survey put employed teleworkers at 24.6% of employed workers in fiscal 2024, broadly flat on the year before, with hybrid patterns more common than full remote. Rates are far higher in Tokyo and in large companies than in the regions and in small firms. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's own survey found that 64.0% of companies in the city with 30 or more employees had introduced telework as of October 2025, up from 58.0% a year earlier.
There is no Telework Act. Working-time limits, overtime premiums, the 36 Agreement, rest breaks and occupational safety all apply at home as in the office. The labour ministry's guidelines, revised on 25 March 2021, set out how: hours can be recorded through log-on data or self-reporting, short personal interruptions during the day can be handled as breaks or with flextime, and employers should agree rules on eligibility, communication and costs in advance and put them in the work rules. Under the Labour Standards Act, if employees are to bear costs such as equipment or communications, that must be written into the work rules.
Childcare law now pushes the other way. Since April 2025, employers must make an effort to let employees with children under three, and employees caring for family members, telework. Since October 2025, for children from three until school age, employers must offer at least two options from a list of five, one of which is telework of at least ten days a month.
What it means for a foreign employer
- Hours still have to be tracked. A home-working employee doing late-night email is accruing overtime and late-night premiums. "We trust our people" is not a time-recording system.
- Write it into the work rules. Eligibility, the allowance, who pays for internet and equipment, and how to report hours belong there, not in a global policy page.
- Return-to-office mandates are a hiring issue. Senior bilingual candidates often treat remote days as part of the package. A global mandate that removes them can turn an accepted offer into a counteroffer win.
- Check the parental options. If telework is how you satisfy the October 2025 duty, it is not easily withdrawn for that group.
Sources
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Guidelines for the Appropriate Introduction and Implementation of Telework (revised 25 March 2021).
- Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Telework Population Survey, fiscal 2024.
- Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Bureau of Industrial and Labour Affairs, survey on telework (as at 31 October 2025, published April 2026).
- Act on Childcare Leave, Caregiver Leave and Other Measures, as amended (in force April and October 2025).
- Labour Standards Act, Article 89.