Japan minister encourages businesses to telework

Japan’s economic revitalisation minister Daishiro Yamagiwa has called on businesses to promote teleworking in a bid to control the rapid spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant. 

“We want businesses to think what they can do and how best they can handle the situation in terms of ensuring business continuity,”  Yamagiwa said in a teleconference with Japan’s three major business lobby groups — the Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Japan Association of Corporate Executives, or Keizai Doyukai, according to The Japan Times. 

He encouraged the business community to prepare business continuity plans that involved teleworking, aiming at maintaining socio-economic activities in a time when rapid spread of COVID-19 is expected. 

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“We hope to make public advanced examples where companies are utilising telework effectively, and hopefully spread such use of telework to other companies,” the minister added. 

He did not, however, set a telecommuting target for firms as he acknowledged that each business operates under different circumstances.