Starting in April, the Tokyo Metropolitan government, one of the country’s largest employers, is set to allow its employees to work only four days a week. It is also adding a new “childcare partial leave” policy, which will allow some employees to work two fewer hours per day. The goal is to help employees who are parents balance childcare and work, said Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike.

The new policies come as the birth rate in Japan hit a record low in 2024. From January to June, the country recorded 350,074 births, down 5.7% from the same period in 2023, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare. 

Japan isn’t the only country facing declining fertility. According to the New Yorker, by 2100, 97% of the world’s countries are predicted to be below replacement, or the number of births required to maintain a stable population. South Korea has the lowest fertility rate in the world, and dog strollers outsold baby strollers there last year. While the UN predicts the global population will continue to grow long into this century, some pro-natalists (including, notably, world’s richest man and father of 13 Elon Musk) worry declining birth rates are the world’s biggest looming problem.

Moving to a four-day workweek could help address some of the core issues associated with Japan’s heavy work culture, which can especially weigh on working women. The gap between men and women when it comes to housework is one of the largest among OECD countries, with women in Japan engaging in five times more unpaid work, such as childcare and elder care, than men, according to the International Monetary Fund.