At JR Hitachi Station in Hitachi, Ibaraki Prefecture, it was business as usual on this hot summer morning, with salarymen in business attire headed to work, including the offices of Hitachi Ltd. and nearly 20 group companies.
At JR Hitachi Station in Hitachi, Ibaraki Prefecture, it was business as usual on this hot summer morning, with salarymen in business attire headed to work, including the offices of Hitachi Ltd. and nearly 20 group companies.
Only this was July 2, a Saturday, and many employees were trying to adapt to new power-saving summer shifts across Japan, in which they work weekends and take weekdays off.
"I may not be able to finish as much work as I want to because our business partners are closed," said a 34-year-old man in the nuclear design division of a Hitachi group company.
Daisuke Tsuchiya, 38, who works in the turbine quality control division of another group company, said, "I cannot tell how our work will be affected until I fully go into the new shift."
Tsuchiya said he hopes to spend time on music, his passion, on his weekdays off, while he used to spend weekends mainly with his family.
A 35-year-old woman in the administrative division of a group company said she is afraid that she cannot meet her friend in Tokyo, who takes weekends off, for nearly three months.
In Hitachi, municipal day-care centers decided to extend business hours on Saturdays, and four of them will be open on Sundays to accommodate the new work schedule.
Auto industry workers also are concerned that the summer work shift will affect their lifestyles.
A 47-year-old man who works at an auto parts maker in Ota, Gunma Prefecture, said it will become difficult to see his third son play baseball this summer.
The man, who sometimes works a night shift, cannot spend much time with his son, an eighth-grader and a member of his junior high school's baseball club.
On many weekends, the man has traveled with his wife to cheer for his son's team or worked behind the plate as an umpire for the games.
"Baseball has given us the valuable time our family spends together and our common topic of discussions," he said.
The man is at a loss over how to spend his weekdays off.
"I will try to stay home and not spend money as much as I can," he said.
A 38-year-old public relations official of Mitsubishi Motors Corp., who lives in Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture, has taken his two daughters, aged 2 and 4, to a nearby beach or park with his wife on weekends.
But he said he cannot expect such family excursions this summer.
The man shares family chores with his wife, 41, a nursing care worker.
"I will do cleaning and laundering on my weekdays off," he said. "It was difficult to do my own shopping, but I also hope to do that."
But his wife is complaining that she will not be able to take care of their two daughters alone on weekends, according to the man.
(This article was written by Mitomu Narita and Yuichi Tokaji.)