By using a unique dataset on managerial-level employees who were transferred from Japan to European branches of the same global firms, we examine what would happen to work hours when a worker moves from a long-hour-working country to relatively shorter-hour countries. Even after controlling for...

Using Japanese time-use data from the Survey on Time Use and Leisure Activities (STULA), this paper measures trends in average hours worked (market work) and leisure for Japanese over the past three decades. OECD reports at least a 15 percent decline in market work for Japan since the 1970s....

Using official household micro data from the Labour Force Survey, this paper examines the increase in the working hours of regular male employees in Japan under recession from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. The most important findings of this paper are that working hours tended to be longer...