RESEARCH REPORT

Metropolitan Areas
Office Worker Survey 2023
(1) Work Style Reality and Needs<Detailed Report>
Capturing changes in workers’ work styles and values
December 13, 2023

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Survey Overview
Japan is transitioning to a post-COVID state as it downgraded thecategorization of COVID-19 under the Infectious Disease Law to Class 5 in
May 2023.

Survey period

October 2023

Targetrespondents(1) Screening: Men and women between the ages of 20 and
69 whose occupation is company manager/executive orcompany employee and who live in the areas covered by thesurvey.
(2) Main survey: Those who answered in the screening that
their occupation was either an officer or staff of a company ororganization whose job category was managerial,
specialized/technical, clerical or sales and whose regular office
was located in Greater Tokyo (Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama andChiba prefectures), Osaka City, Nagoya City or Fukuoka City,
whose residence was in Greater Tokyo (Tokyo, Kanagawa,
Saitama and Chiba prefectures), or Gifu, Aichi, Mie, Shiga,
Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Nara, Wakayama, Fukuoka or Saga
prefectures and whose current principal workplace was theoffice or home.

Number ofvalid answers

4,120
Allocated according to the location of the respondent’s regular
office.
(Greater Tokyo: 2,060; Osaka City: 1,030; Nagoya City: 515;
Fukuoka City: 515)

Geographicalcoverage

Greater Tokyo (Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba
prefectures) and Gifu, Aichi, Mie, Shiga, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo,
Nara, Wakayama, Fukuoka and Saga prefectures

Survey method

OnlineTo capture changes in work styles and the workplace from the perspectives ofboth companies and office workers, Xymax Real Estate Institute (“Xymax
REI”) has conducted a total of 14 Metropolitan Areas Office Demand Surveys
of companies since autumn 2016 and seven Greater Tokyo Office Worker
Surveys of office workers since the end of 2016. This 8th office worker survey
was conducted in October 2023 with the addition of regional cities in thesurvey’s geographical coverage. This report is an excerpt of the results of thesurvey concerning the reality and needs in work styles. “(2) Evaluation ofWork Styles,” released on the same day, summarizes the results of ananalysis of workers’ evaluation of their current work styles.
*1 Metropolitan Areas Office Worker Survey 2023 (2) Evaluation of Work Styles,
released on December 13, 2023
https://www.xymax.co.jp/english/research/images/pdf/20231213_2.pdf
The percentage mix in the charts contained in this report is rounded to the first decimal
place and, therefore, may not add up to 100%.
<Related survey>
・Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2022, released on November 30, 2022
https://www.xymax.co.jp/english/research/images/pdf/20221130.pdf

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Survey Overview

Attributes of Respondents: Greater Tokyo (n=2,060)

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Survey Overview

Attributes of Respondents: Osaka City (n=1,030)

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Survey Overview

Attributes of Respondents: Nagoya City (n=515)

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Survey Overview

Attributes of Respondents: Fukuoka City (n=515)

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Main Findings

1. Reality of Work Styles (from p.8)●●

The office location with the highest percentage of “teleworkers,” i.e., those who teleworked for any length of time at the time of thesurvey, was Greater Tokyo at 51.4%. However, compared to previous surveys, the percentage is declining after peaking in 2021.
In terms of the percentage of time spent at the place of work during the pandemic and now, the percentage of time working in the
respondents’ “regular office” increased by 7–8 percentage points, irrespective of the region. Workers who replied that their frequency
of coming to the office had increased between during the pandemic and now accounted for more than 20% in all regions. In each ofthese regions, the percentage of “Increased” exceeded that of “Decreased” in terms of the frequency of coming to the office.

2. Needs in Work Styles (from p.18)●●

A comparison of the current use and the need for work style initiatives indicates a large gap between current use and the need in“work-from-home allowances” and relatively advanced initiatives that are not currently highly used, such as “side job allowed by
employer,” “workation allowed by employer” and “live and work at two locations; move to and work from suburb or countryside,” in allareas.
A comparison of the current use and the need for layouts in the respondents’ regular office shows a large gap between current use
and the need in “canteen, café space,” “space for refreshing” and “space for concentrating,” irrespective of the area, indicating thatavailability has not kept pace with workers’ needs.

7© Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

1. Reality of Work Styles
1.
2.
3.
4.

CommuteWork Style Initiatives
Telework, Frequency of Coming to the Office
Office Layouts

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1.1. Commute

Workers in Greater Tokyo commute to the office an average of 3.8 times per week
Figure 1 shows workers’ average weekly commute frequency to their regular
office by office location. It indicates that workers commuting to offices inGreater Tokyo come to the office the least frequently (an average of 3.8
times per week), suggesting that they telework outside of their regular officemore frequently than workers in other regions.

Figure 2: Commuting Method – By Office Location

In terms of the commuting method, more than 80% of workers in Greater
Tokyo (83.9%) and Osaka City (85.0%) commute by train (Figure 2).
Workers in Nagoya City and Fukuoka City notably commute by car or bus,
as their use of trains is low.

Figure 1: Commute Frequency – By Office Location

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1.1. Commute

Workers in Greater Tokyo have longer commutes and higher commuting stress
The commute time (door-to-door, one-way) using respondents’ usual commuting method was the longest among workers in Greater Tokyo at 54.2 minutes (Figure 3).
When we asked respondents to rate the stress they usually experience while commuting on an 11-point scale from 0 (low stress) to 10 (high stress), the averagescore was 5.4 in Greater Tokyo and 5.1 in Osaka City, indicating that commuting stress is higher in regions where commuting times are longer (Figure 4).

Figure 3: Commuting Time – By Office Location

Figure 4: Commuting Stress – By Office Location

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1.2. Work Style Initiatives“Online conference tools” are the most common work style initiative across all regions
When we asked respondents about the work
style initiative that was currently used or
implemented, “online conference tools” werethe most common in all regions (Figure 5).
Tools and work styles that are introduced inassociation with the implementation of
telework, such as “online conference tools,”“chat tools for work” and “mobile work,” tend
to be adopted at a higher rate in Greater
Tokyo than in regional cities.

Figure 5: Adoption of Work Style Initiatives – By Office Location

There was no large difference between
Greater Tokyo and regional cities in theinitiatives with lower adoption rates in general,such as “skill improvement, self-learning,recurrent education provided/supported by
employer” and “side job allowed by
employer.”

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1.3. Telework, Frequency of Coming to the Office

Teleworkers account for the majority in Greater Tokyo, but their percentage is declining
Figure 6 summarizes the percentage of ”teleworkers,” i.e., those who
teleworked for any length of time at the time of the survey. Teleworkers
account for more than half (51.4%) in Greater Tokyo, where the teleworker
percentage is the largest. Teleworkers also account for about 40% in
regional cities.

Figure 6: Percentage of Teleworkers – By Office Location

Compared to previous surveys on the telework situation in Greater Tokyo,
we found that the percentage of teleworkers has been declining sincepeaking in the 2021 survey (Figure 7). The figure also shows that workers
who telework full time only account for 4.2% of the total, with the majority
being teleworkers engaged in “hybrid work,” which is to combine
teleworking and coming to the office.

Figure 7: Coming to the Office or Teleworking (Greater Tokyo,
Comparison over Time)12© Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

1.3. Telework, Frequency of Coming to the OfficeGreater Tokyo has a larger proportion of teleworkers working “only from home” thanregional cities
Figure 8: Implementation Rate of Initiatives on the Place for Telework – By Office Location
An examination of the use of a satellite
office*1 and home for teleworking*2 showsthat the percentage of workers who telework“only from home” (43.3%) is more than 10
percentage points higher in Greater Tokyo
than in regional cities (Figure 8).
The percentage of working from a satellite
office (the sum of “Both from SO and home”
and “Only from SO”) was roughly the same inregional cities and Greater Tokyo, where
teleworking is more common.
*1 Satellite office: A collective term for workplaces
provided for telework apart from the worker’s
regular office or home.
*2 The answers were grouped into “Implementing
both working from a satellite office and working
from home,” “Working only from a satellite
office,” “Working only from home” and “Neither.”
The use of “Telework from other locations” is not
relevant.

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1.3. Telework, Frequency of Coming to the Office

The use of the telework support type is popular in all regions. Its positioning may varydepending on the region.
We asked workers who use a satellite office about the specific brand they
use and classified them into the “main office type” and “telework supporttype”* (Figure 9).

Figure 9: Type of Satellite Office Used – By Office Location

In all regions, around half of satellite office users use the “telework supporttype” of satellite offices.
On the other hand, the percentage of using the “main office type” ofsatellite offices (the sum of “Main office type, telework support type” and“Main office type”) is higher in regional cities than in Greater Tokyo.
Satellite offices in regional cities may be used more as the main place ofwork, such as a sales office, than as a place for teleworking.
*Classified based on the concept in Classification of Flexible Offices by Type,released on May 2, 2023.

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1.3. Telework, Frequency of Coming to the Office

Proportion of time working in the “regular office” increased 7–8 pt from during the pandemic
We asked respondents how they split theirtime between each place of work, i.e., their“regular office,” “home (work from home),”“satellite office” and “other locations,” during
the COVID-19 pandemic (before thedowngrade of COVID-19 to a Class 5
infectious disease) and now.

Figure 10: Time Allocated to Each Place of Work During the Pandemic and Now– By Office Location

In all regions, the proportion of time spentworking in the respondents’ “regular office”
increased by 7–8 percentage points between
during the pandemic and now (Figure 10).
The figure also shows that most of the timeother than working in one’s regular office, i.e.,
the time spent teleworking, was spentworking from home.

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1.3. Telework, Frequency of Coming to the Office

In all regions, more than 20% of respondents replied that the frequency of coming tothe office “increased” with the downgrade of COVID-19 to Class 5
Figure 11 shows the changes in respondents’ frequency of coming to the office from during the pandemic to the downgrade of COVID-19 to a Class 5 infectious
disease. In all regions, more than 20% of workers saw an increase in their frequency of coming to the office with the downgrade to Class 5, and the percentage of“Increased” exceeded “Decreased.”

How workers with an increased frequency of coming to the office split their time in each place of work during the pandemic and now is shown in Figure 12. In all
regions, the percentage of time spent working in one’s regular office has increased by more than 20 percentage points (one day out of five days a week).

Figure 11: Changes in Frequency of Coming to the Office– By Office Location

Figure 12: Time Allocated to Each Place of Work During thePandemic and Now– By Office Location; Workers Whose Coming-to-office Frequency“Increased”

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1.4. Office Layouts

Hot desking is more widespread in Greater Tokyo than in regional cities
Figure 13 shows the layouts respondents
actually use in their regular office.

Figure 13: Utilization of Layouts within the Office – By Office Location”Fixed desk” was the most popular in all
regions. However, it accounted for less than
70% in Greater Tokyo, where “hot desking”
was more widespread than in other regions.
Offices appear to be more optimized throughhot desking according to the proliferation levelof teleworking.

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2. Needs in Work Styles
1. Work Style Initiatives
2. Office Layouts

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2.1. Work Style Initiatives

There is also a need for advanced initiatives such as side jobs and workation
Figures 14 to 17 show the work style initiatives currently being used or implemented (“currently used,” Figure 5) and the initiatives respondents wish to use or
implement in the future (“need”). In addition to ”work-from-home allowance,” relatively advanced initiatives that are not currently highly adopted, such as “side job
allowed by employer,” “workation allowed by employer” and “live and work at two locations; move to and work from suburb or countryside,” show a large gap between
current use and need across all regions. The need also exceeds current use across all regions in “mobile work,” “flextime program” and “skill improvement, selflearning, recurrent education provided/supported by employer.”

Figure 14: <Greater Tokyo> Work Style Initiatives(Currently Used and Need)

Figure 15: <Osaka City> Work Style Initiatives(Currently Used and Need)19© Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

2.1. Work Style Initiatives

There is also a need for advanced initiatives such as side jobs and workation

Figure 16: <Nagoya City> Work Style Initiatives(Currently Used and Need)

Figure 17: <Fukuoka City> Work Style Initiatives(Currently Used and Need)20© Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

2.2. Office Layouts“Space for refreshing” has the largest gap between current use and need
Figures 18 to 21 show the layouts actually used in the respondents’ regular office (“currently used,” Figure 13) and the layouts respondents wish to have in theirregular office (“need”) by office location. The gap between current use and the need is large for “canteen, café space,” “space for refreshing” and “space forconcentrating” in all regions. In particular, there is a gap of more than 20 percentage points in “space for refreshing” across all regions, indicating that availability has
not kept pace with workers’ needs.

Figure 18: <Greater Tokyo> Office Layouts(Currently Used and Need)

Figure 19: <Osaka City> Office Layouts(Currently Used and Need)21© Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

2.2. Office Layouts“Space for refreshing” has the largest gap between current use and need

Figure 20: <Nagoya City> Office Layouts(Currently Used and Need)

Figure 21: <Fukuoka City> Office Layouts(Currently Used and Need)22© Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.