IntroductionThe rapid adoption of telework, accelerated by advancements in ICT and the COVID-19 pandemic, offers potential benefits for wellbeing and environmental impact. However, telework’s effects on work productivity, work-life balance, and social connectedness remain complex, particularly within hybrid models combining work-from-home (WFH) and in office days.MethodsThis study assessed telework’s impact by comparing WFH and office days. A survey of 1,500 full-time workers in Japan’s Tokyo Metropolitan Region focused on daily time allocation, and telework preferences during telework periods. Principal component and cluster analyses were used to identify groups with distinct work and lifestyle patterns.ResultsSix telework-related groups emerged, reflecting diverse experiences in productivity and daily life. Groups such as the “Overall Increase” and “Housework and Rest Increase” reported gains in leisure and family time, positively impacting wellbeing. In contrast, the “Unsuitable for WFH” group faced increased office-day workloads and reduced WFH productivity, indicating that telework’s effectiveness depends on job and individual characteristics.ConclusionThe findings highlight telework’s potential to enhance wellbeing and sustainability but also underscore the need for tailored policies that address diverse job requirements and personal characteristics. This study contributes to sustainable telework strategies by offering insights into effective support systems that balance flexibility, productivity, and environmental sustainability, aiming both for an enhanced personal life and societal benefits.

■Purpose and Overview (Summary): Measures against COVID-19 and Restrictions on Overtime Work Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises will subsidize a portion of the costs required to implement measures to improve working hours * in Others by teleworking from home or at satellite offices.

• "Improvement of working hour arrangements" means taking into account the life and health of workers in each workplace regarding working hours, annual paid leave, etc., and making them better suited to various working styles. ■ Purpose and Outline: Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises purpose of this grant is to promote the improvement of working hours arrangements in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises by focusing grants on employers who have achieved results in improving working hours arrangements in Others, which limits overtime work, by introducing and operating telecommunication equipment for telework, formulating work rules and labor-management agreements, etc. and improving productivity with the aim of tackling telework at home or satellite offices in order to take measures against COVID-19 and improve working hours arrangements in Others, which limits overtime work.

Activities covered include introduction and operation of telecommunication equipment for telework, preparation and revision of work rules and labor-management agreements, training for personnel in charge of labor management, training for workers, awareness raising, and consulting by outside experts (Hereinafter referred to as the "Improvement Project".). Among the expenses for implementing the above, the subsidized expenses include honoraria, travel expenses, borrowing expenses, conference expenses, miscellaneous service expenses, printing and binding expenses, appliance expenses, machinery device, etc., and commission expenses.

Please visit our website for more information.

■ Contact: Telework Consultation Center

Phone: 0570-550348 (Hours: Weekdays from 9 to 17:00)

• Applications and inquiries related to the Subsidy for Promotion of Workstyle Reform (Telework Course for COVID-19 Countermeasures) are accepted by the Japan Telework Association, which is the trustee of the “Telework Consultation Center, ” a the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare consignment project.

■ Reference URL: https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/koyou_roudou/roudoukijun/jikan/syokubaisikitelework.html ,

■Objectives and Summary (Summary): Restrictions on Overtime Work In order to improve working hours * and promote work-life balance in Others, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises will subsidize a portion of the costs required for teleworking at home or in satellite offices.

• "Improvement of working hour arrangements" means taking into consideration the life and health of workers in each workplace regarding working hours, annual paid leave, etc., and making them better suited to various working styles. ■ Purpose and Overview: Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises purpose of this grant is to promote the improvement of working hours arrangements in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises by providing grants to employers that have achieved results in improving working hours arrangements in Others by introducing and operating telecommunication equipment for telework, creating work rules and labor-management agreements, etc., with the aim of promoting telework at home or satellite offices, and improving productivity.

Activities covered include introduction and operation of telecommunication equipment for telework, preparation and revision of work rules and labor-management agreements, training for personnel in charge of labor management, training for workers, awareness raising, and consulting by outside experts (Hereinafter referred to as the "Improvement Project".). Among the expenses for implementing the above, grants, travel expenses, borrowing expenses, conference expenses, miscellaneous service expenses, printing and binding expenses, appliance expenses, purchasing expenses such as machinery device, and commission expenses are eligible for grants.

In addition, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises has set performance targets for the improvement project for the promotion of telework working from home or at satellite offices, and the subsidy rate and the maximum amount per 1 company will vary depending on the achievement of those performance targets.

Please visit our website for more information.

(Note) If you are not using jGrants at the time of your grant application (if you have mailed your application to the Telework Counseling Center), you will not be able to apply using jGrants due to system specifications. In that case, please mail the payment application form to the telework consultation center in the same way as when you apply for the grant.

■ Contact: Telework Consultation Center

Phone: 0120-91-6479

• Applications and inquiries regarding the Workstyle Reform Promotion Subsidy (Telework Course) are handled by the Japan Telework Association, which is the trustee of the "Telework Consultation Center," a the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare consignment project.

■ Reference URL: https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/koyou_roudou/roudoukijun/jika/telework_10026.html ,

Characteristics of participants regarding lifestyle and telework among four companies in Tokyo, Japan.

The results of cross-tabulation and χ2 test based on telework frequency and psychological distress.

In June 2025, the vacancy rate for office space in Tokyo's five central business districts reached **** percent. The office vacancy rate in the capital's central business districts reached a low of **** percent in early 2020, but increased significantly during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Impact of COVID-19 on workstyles in Japan By international comparison, businesses in Japan have been known for a rather slow adoption of new work styles such as telework. Japanese corporate culture has been cited as one of the reasons for this. The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, however, resulted in a sudden increase in companies offering telework and sparked a debate about new forms of work across Japan. The changes were especially apparent among large corporations, many of which announced plans for a shift to permanent remote work and reduction of their office space. Flexible office space The increase in companies offering teleworking is likely to have an impact on the demand for flexible offices and coworking spaces. Operated by so-called third-party providers, flexible offices represent an alternative to traditional leasing arrangements for office space. While Japan’s flexible office market is comparably small, it was forecast to expand significantly in the coming years, and the number of flexible offices in Tokyo’s 23 wards has seen a constant increase.

Characteristics of participants regarding basic attributes among four companies in Tokyo, Japan.

Characteristics of participants regarding psychological distress among four companies in Tokyo, Japan.

■Purpose and Overview (Summary): The purpose of this project is to establish a technology to provide services at high speed and smoothly while operating each data center in an integrated and efficient manner, by subsidizing part of the costs related to the research and development of technology for integrated management of distributed data centers and high-speed processing technology for highly efficient networks, in order to build a distributed cloud infrastructure utilizing data centers dispersed in regions. ■ Purpose and Overview: In order to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, teleworking has increased rapidly throughout the country. As a result, data communication volume has increased due to voice calls, video conferencing, etc., and as a result, remote working systems have experienced problems and degraded quality. While the increase in telework due to the COVID-19 pandemic is occurring not only in large cities but also in a wide range of regions, one of the reasons is that processing requests are concentrated in central data centers (Tokyo and Osaka), resulting in tight lines.

In the future, as next-generation communications technologies such as 5 G that enable high-capacity, low-latency communications begin to spread, and IT services that fully utilize such high-capacity, low-latency communications capabilities increase in various industries such as healthcare, education, and Manufacturing, the quality of communications is expected to further deteriorate, causing problems in business continuity.

The direction of change in IT infrastructure is that virtualization is decoupling hardware software and building various network functions in the cloud. In order to realize the "low latency" characteristic of 5 G as a service, distributed processing that takes into account the distance between the data source and the processing server is effective. In order to realize such low-latency services on the cloud, there is a need for technology that operates geographically dispersed data centers in a unified manner and distributes data to multiple data centers for processing.

The purpose of this Project is to establish a technology that can provide services at high speed and smoothly while operating each data center in an integrated and efficient manner, by subsidizing a part of the costs related to the research and development of technology for integrated management of distributed data centers and high-speed processing technology for highly efficient networks, in order to build a distributed cloud infrastructure utilizing data centers dispersed in regions.

Our goal is to increase the cloud market share of the domestic cloud market by 10% or more in fiscal 2025.

■ Contact: Japan Data Center Association Secretariat

Contact: Imamura, Takahashi, and Yaguchi

Please e-mail. We cannot accept inquiries by phone.

Please make sure to set the subject line as "Industrial Technology Practical Application Development Costs grant (Regional Distributed Cloud Technology Development Project)." We may not be able to respond to your inquiry with a different subject.

■ Reference URL: https://www.jdcc.or.jp/activity/rd/ ,

Results of the two-way ANCOVA for AIS, UWES, and WFun scores.

■Purpose and Overview (Summary): The purpose of this project is to establish a technology to provide services at high speed and smoothly while operating each data center in an integrated and efficient manner, by subsidizing part of the costs related to the research and development of technology for integrated management of distributed data centers and high-speed processing technology for highly efficient networks, in order to build a distributed cloud infrastructure utilizing data centers dispersed in regions. ■ Purpose and Overview: In order to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, teleworking has increased rapidly throughout the country. As a result, data communication volume has increased due to voice calls, video conferencing, etc., and as a result, remote working systems have experienced problems and degraded quality. While the increase in telework due to the COVID-19 pandemic is occurring not only in large cities but also in a wide range of regions, one of the reasons is that processing requests are concentrated in central data centers (Tokyo and Osaka), resulting in tight lines.

In the future, as next-generation communications technologies such as 5 G that enable high-capacity, low-latency communications begin to spread, and IT services that fully utilize such high-capacity, low-latency communications capabilities increase in various industries such as healthcare, education, and Manufacturing, the quality of communications is expected to further deteriorate, causing problems in business continuity.

The direction of change in IT infrastructure is that virtualization is decoupling hardware software and building various network functions in the cloud. In order to realize the "low latency" characteristic of 5 G as a service, distributed processing that takes into account the distance between the data source and the processing server is effective. In order to realize such low-latency services on the cloud, there is a need for technology that operates geographically dispersed data centers in a unified manner and distributes data to multiple data centers for processing.

The purpose of this Project is to establish a technology that can provide services at high speed and smoothly while operating each data center in an integrated and efficient manner, by subsidizing a part of the costs related to the research and development of technology for integrated management of distributed data centers and high-speed processing technology for highly efficient networks, in order to build a distributed cloud infrastructure utilizing data centers dispersed in regions.

Our goal is to increase the cloud market share of the domestic cloud market by 10% or more in fiscal 2025.

■ Contact: Japan Data Center Association Secretariat

Contact: Imamura, Takahashi, and Yaguchi

Please e-mail. We cannot accept inquiries by phone.

Please make sure to set the subject line as "Industrial Technology Practical Application Development Costs grant (Regional Distributed Cloud Technology Development Project)." We may not be able to respond to your inquiry with a different subject.

■ Reference URL: https://www.jdcc.or.jp/activity/rd/ ,