Most workers in Japan want to refuse to be contacted from work after hours if they can, reports The Mainichi, citing a recent survey by labour union organisation Rengo. Work-related contact after hours is believed to be increasing due to flexible workstyles, which have gained traction in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the survey results suggest that the spread of understanding toward the ‘right to disconnect’ remains a challenge. The results also showed that 72.4% of respondents received contact from work outside their hours, an 8.2% increase compared to those who said they had been contacted from work during off-hours before the pandemic.

Meanwhile, 62.2% of people say they are stressed by work-related contact outside their working hours. When asked whether they wanted to refuse to answer such contact if they could, 72.6% said yes. At the same time, 25.8% of respondents said that their work had rules on such after-hour contact. The results highlight the gap between workers' perspectives on the right to disconnect and awareness of it in the workplaces.