In 2024, the number of children born in Japan fell to 720,988, marking the ninth consecutive year of low records, while Portugal recorded a total of 84,631 babies, 1,133 fewer newborns than the previous year (85,764).

Births decreased in all of Japan’s 47 prefectures compared to 2023, declining at a faster pace than government projections and showing no signs of abating. Following the drop recorded in 2024, the number of births in Portugal grew again in the first quarter of this year, but it still remains uncertain whether these figures can be maintained.

In partnership with 4 Day Week Global, the Portuguese government launched a report including 41 Portuguese companies that shortened the working week, 21 of which coordinated the start of a six-month trial in June 2023. As a result, work exhaustion decreased by 19 percent, challenges maintaining work-life balance dropped from 46 percent to 8 percent, and a vast majority of employees would only return to a 5-day week if they received a pay rise.

The Azorean government has announced plans to begin testing the four-day workweek in the public sector this year, claiming it will increase productivity through a sense of responsibility, and could lead to improvements in the private sector.

In the Regional Government programme (PSD/CDS-PP/PPM), approved in March by the Azorean parliament, the executive indicates that it seeks to create a “pilot project for the four-day workweek/telework (also extendable to the private sector), always in common agreement with the worker and the employer, to better reconcile their professional life with their personal and family life”.

A similar announcement was made by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which introduced the four-day work week on 1 April, requiring companies to offer flexible work options for employees with young children, such as reduced working hours and remote work.

“We will continue to review work styles flexibility to ensure that women do not have to sacrifice their careers due to childbirth or child-rearing”, Yuriko Koike, Governor of Tokyo, said at the time of the announcement.

Currently, the Tokyo Government uses a flexitime system that allows employees to add an extra day off every four weeks, and this will rise so that staff can add an extra day off per week. The increasing pressure from the government to allow more flexibility for working parents comes amid growing concerns over Japan’s ageing population.

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