Some Japan firms rethink traditional office as pandemic boosts working from home

IT solutions company Fujitsu Ltd unveiled a plan to halve its office space in three years, allowing flexible hours for roughly 80,000 workers - many of whom would work from home - under a "new normal".

TOKYO: A third of Japanese firms are reassessing using offices after a sharp drop in their utilisation in August from a year ago, as 65% of firms allowed or encouraged employees to work from home due to the coronavirus pandemic, a monthly Reuters poll showed.

Many workers in Japan, and elsewhere in the world, began telecommuting as the coronavirus spread and governments imposed restrictions on businesses and movements to contain it.