Work from home the new normal in Japan, at least for big companies

John Edvard with his Japanese wife and three-year-old son at his workspace in his Fukuoka home. - John Edvard

TOKYO (The Straits Times/ANN): The nightmare of Tokyo's morning rush hour trains is something that Yayoi Yakumo says she will not miss, with the human resources manager having embraced the experience of working from home.

The 44-year-old, who works at building materials group LIXIL, will continue to work from home even as Japan this week lifted its state of emergency, with many large corporations having come to adopt flexible telework arrangements that years of government cajoling had failed to achieve.