For some of Japan's lonely workers, COVID-19 brings a homecoming

FILE PHOTO: Office workers wearing protective face masks walk to head home at sunset amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tokyo, Japan June 9, 2020. REUTERS/Issei Kato

TOKYO (Reuters) - After four years spent working and living alone, far from his family and friends, Tsuyoshi Tatebayashi packed his bags at the end of March and returned, at last, to his wife and two daughters.

Like hundreds of thousands of other white-collar workers, the 44-year-old IT engineer had been on a solo assignment, known as "tanshin funin", and wasn't expecting to return to his family so soon.