> Earlier this year the government introduced 'Premium Fridays', encouraging firms to let their employees out early, at 3pm, on the last Friday each month. They also want Japanese workers to take more holiday.
That's a single digit number of hours every month. It's meaningless if workers are still doing massive amounts of unpaid overtime.
> Earlier this year the government proposed limiting average overtime to 60 hours a month though firms would be allowed to up this to 100 hours during "busy periods" - well into the karoshi red zone.
And suddenly every period is a "busy period".
> Critics say the government is prioritizing business and economic interests at the expense of the welfare of workers.
Not even. I'm sure they could actually be more productive if they weren't literally working their employees to death.
Here's an idea. Make companies pay extra compensation if employees work overtime. I guarantee you companies will be literally pushing their employees out the door at 6 PM then.