Xymax Real Estate Institute

RESEARCH REPORTGreater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2021
Capturing changes in workers’ work styles and values

December 17, 2021

Many companies were forced to review their work styles and how they operate their workplace as a result of
the Japanese government’s request for teleworking and declaration of a state of emergency following theoutbreak of COVID-19 in spring 2020, in addition to the rising attention to work style reforms in recent years.
These changes in work styles are expected to affect not only companies’ management strategies but also office
workers’ values.
Xymax Real Estate Institute (“Xymax REI”) has been conducting questionnaire surveys to capture changes inwork styles and the workplace from the perspectives of both companies and office workers. For companies, wehave carried out a total of 11 Greater Tokyo Office Worker Surveys since autumn 2016 and four Greater Tokyo
Company Surveys since August 2020. For office workers, we have conducted five Greater Tokyo Office Worker
Surveys since the end of 2016. This report summarizes the latest trend of the actual work styles and values ofworkers working in Greater Tokyo, based on the results of the 6th office worker survey conducted in September
2021.

Summary of Survey Results
1. Reality of work styles under the COVID-19 pandemic

Teleworkers accounted for approximately 70% of total, of whom less than 10% teleworked full time.
Many teleworkers combined coming to the office on a situational basis. When including workers
working in the office only, more than 90% of the workers came to the office to some degree.

The implementation rate of work style initiatives rose across the board from the 2020 survey. In
particular, the adoption rate of “Work-from-home allowances (for supplies, utility cost, etc.)” (16.7%)
nearly doubled.

Workers worked in their “regular office” for an average of around 60% of their time. They worked
from home for most of the other time spent teleworking.

The top answer for the benefit of coming to one’s regular office was “Availability of work
facilities (e.g., communications network, appliances, workspace)” (53.4%). Other top
benefits were communication related.

2. Teleworking under the COVID-19 pandemicIn terms of the number of days teleworkers teleworked, the most common was “Up to 5 days a week
(81–100%)” (30.2%), followed by “Up to 1 day a week (up to 20%)” (23.8%). As much as around halfof the teleworkers teleworked for 4–5 days a week (61–100%).



The top answer for the benefit of teleworking was “Reduction in travel/commute time” (80.0%).

The top answer for dissatisfaction with teleworking was “Difficult to communicate” (40.3%).



The top answer for dissatisfaction with working from home was “Prone to lack exercise or becomeunhealthy” (56.5%). The survey also revealed that workers still lacked work facilities such as

Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2021
The contents of this report are as of the time of writing. Xymax Real Estate Institute does not guarantee their accuracy or completeness. This report may not be
reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
Copyright © 2022 Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

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RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate Instituteappliances, monitors, photocopiers and internet connection, despite the increasing prevalence ofworking from home.


The top answer for workers’ impression toward satellite offices was “Easier to concentrate than whenworking from home” (51.6%).

3. Assessment of teleworkWhen we asked teleworkers to assess their performance and engagement under their current work
style, more than 50% of them replied that both their performance and engagement “improved” orthat there was “no change” compared to when they came to the office full-time for five days a week.
As for stress, approximately 60% of the teleworkers replied that it was “alleviated.” The percentage
rose to more than 80% when including “No change.”When looking at the comparison of the ease of performing tasks between working in the office andteleworking by assessment of performance, the group of respondents who experienced an
improvement in performance when teleworking saw a larger proportion replying that the ease of
performing the task was the same between working in the office and teleworking or was greater
when teleworking for not only tasks done by oneself but also tasks that accompanied
communication, compared to the group of respondents who experienced a decline in performance.



In workers’ dissatisfaction with working from home by assessment of performance, a significantly
larger proportion of workers whose performance declined than those whose performance improved
chose “Communication is difficult/reduced,” “Difficult to switch on and off from work,” “Difficult toconcentrate, prone to distraction,” and “Lack of space or appliances suited for work.”

4. Work styles after the COVID-19 pandemicIn terms of work styles going forward, 76.1% of all respondents wished to telework, which is morethan the current percentage of teleworkers (67.7%).



As for the frequency of telework, the percentage of respondents who prefer an extreme frequency,such as “Up to 1 day a week (up to 20%)” and “Up to 5 days a week (81–100%),” was smaller than
the actual percentage, while the percentage of “Up to 2–4 days a week (21–80%)” was greater.



The top choice for the type of office respondents wanted to come to work in after the pandemic
was “There is a private room to concentrate on work” (44.6%). The preference rate rose from theprevious survey in features related to meeting and congregating with people, such as “Easy to chator have random communication with others” (27.3%).



The top feature of importance when using a satellite office was “It is close to home” (57.5%).
Related surveys:
・New Ways of Working and New Types of Office, released on April 13, 2017https://www.xymax.co.jp/english/research/images/pdf/20170413.pdf
・Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2018, released on June 6, 2018https://www.xymax.co.jp/english/research/images/pdf/20180606.pdf
・Effect of Commuting Stress on the Working People’s Satisfaction, released on June 4, 2019https://www.xymax.co.jp/english/research/images/pdf/20190604.pdf
・Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2019, released on December 19, 2019https://www.xymax.co.jp/english/research/images/pdf/20191219.pdf
・Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2020, released on November 24, 2020
https://www.xymax.co.jp/english/research/images/pdf/20201124.pdf

Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2021
The contents of this report are as of the time of writing. Xymax Real Estate Institute does not guarantee their accuracy or completeness. This report may not be
reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
Copyright © 2022 Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

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RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate Institute

1. Reality of work styles under the COVID-19 pandemic
Percentage of teleworkers
In this survey, we obtained valid answers from 2,060 men and women aged 18 and above, whose profession
was officer or staff of a company or organization, whose job category was managerial, specialized or technical,
clerical or sales, whose regular office was located in Greater Tokyo (Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Chiba
prefectures), and whose principal workplace before the pandemic as well as now was the office or home. In thisreport we will look into the actual situations of how the respondents currently work.
We will start by looking at how many workers came to the office under the COVID-19 pandemic. At the timeof the survey, “teleworkers,” i.e., respondents who teleworked even to a small extent, accounted for 67.7% of all
respondents, while those who worked in the office only and did not telework accounted for 32.3% (Figure 1).
Those who replied that they teleworked full-time accounted for less than 10% of total (8.5%), indicating thatmany teleworkers both teleworked and came to the office. More than 90% of the workers, including those who
worked in the office only, came to the office to some degree.
Figure 1: Coming to the Office or Teleworking

We then compared the situation of workers coming to the office and teleworking shown in Figure 1 with the2020 survey after sorting workers who replied that they currently worked in the office only into “workers withtemporary telework experience” if they had temporarily teleworked either before or after the outbreak of the
COVID-19 pandemic, and “workers with no telework experience” if they had never teleworked before (Figure 2).
As a result, the percentage of teleworkers increased by 5.0 pp from the 2020 survey, while that of workers withtemporary telework experience dropped by 5.9 pp. This suggests that some workers switched between
teleworking and coming to the office based on company orders or their own judgment in consideration of thesituation. Indeed, contrary to when the 2020 survey was conducted (September 2020), when infection numbers
were low, the 2021 survey was carried out during the 4th declaration of a state of emergency, which likely
reinforced telework. We also found that workers with no telework experience, who do not or cannot telework
regardless of the situation, exist to a certain degree.

Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2021
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reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
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RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate Institute
Figure 2: Implementation of Telework

In terms of the percentage of teleworkers by job category, teleworkers accounted for more than 80% in“Technical specialist” (82.2%), “Corporate planning” (81.0%), and “Clerical specialist” (80.4%). In particular, thepercentage of teleworkers among technical specialists and workers engaged in corporate planning rose by 9.0
pp and 10.3 pp from the 2020 survey, respectively. On the other hand, the percentage of teleworkers was
relatively small in “General office work/reception/secretary” (52.2%) (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Percentage of Teleworkers (By Job Category)Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2021
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reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
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RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate Institute
In terms of job position, “Manager” (77.6%) had the largest rate of teleworkers. “Non-regular staff” had thesmallest percentage (55.5%) and was also the only position that did not see a growth from 2020 (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Percentage of Teleworkers (By Job Position)

We then examined the current implementation of telework and when telework was introduced for each placeof telework (home, satellite office, other (café, etc.)) (Figure 5). Satellite offices were divided into those provided
by a specialized service provider and those owned or rented by own company. As for working from “Home,”
where telework was implemented the most, 46.3% of the respondents replied that they “had not implemented
before COVID-19 outbreak but did so after the outbreak,” confirming the intensity of the impact of the pandemic.
Figure 5: Implementation of Telework and Timing of Introduction for Each Place of Telework

Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2021
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reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
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RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate Institute
In addition to the places of telework in Figure 5, we did a year-to-year comparison of currently implemented
work style initiatives (Figure 6). The implementation rate rose significantly across the board in the 2020 survey
following the outbreak of the pandemic and continued to rise in all initiatives this year. In particular, “Workfrom-home allowance (for supplies, utility cost, etc.)” (8.5%→16.7%) nearly doubled from 2020, suggesting that
secondary initiatives not in place last year when telework spread rapidly are gradually starting to prevail.
Figure 6: Implementation Rate of Work Style Initiatives

Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2021
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reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
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RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate Institute
Switching between coming to the office and teleworking
In the previous section we found that while 70% of all workers teleworked, many of them also used the office.
Therefore, we examined how workers split their time between each place of work, i.e., their regular office, home
(working from home), satellite office, and other location, and found that workers spent an average of around
60% of their time working from their regular office (Figure 7). Furthermore, most of their time spent working
other than in their regular office, i.e., their time teleworking, was spent working from home, indicating thatcurrently for workers, teleworking means working from home.
Figure 7: Allocation of Time between Places of WorkAs for the benefit of coming to one’s regular office, the top reply was “Availability of work facilities (e.g.,communications network, appliances, workspace) (53.4%) (Figure 8). This was followed by “Easy to carry out
business communication (e.g., negotiations)” (49.7%) and “Easy to engage in communication (e.g., chatting)”(43.2%), indicating workers’ appreciation of communication-related benefits. Furthermore, “Easy to gather
information (e.g., materials)” (34.3%) may be something that would prove difficult when teleworking.
Figure 8: Benefits of Coming to the OfficeGreater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2021
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reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
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RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate InstituteWe then asked the respondents which was easier to perform certain tasks—in the office or by telework (Figure9). For “Paperwork by oneself” and “Generating ideas by oneself,” telework gained more votes than working in
the office, revealing that many workers thought solo tasks were more easily done when teleworking. On theother hand, 60–70% of the respondents replied that tasks done by multiple persons, such as “Internal meetings,”
were more easily performed in the office. “Training of new/young employees,” in particular, was the type of task
in the survey that gained the largest percentage of respondents replying it was more easily done in the office.
However, we also found that, in all task types, a certain number of workers replied there was no difference inthe ease of work between teleworking and working in the office or that it was easier to work when teleworking.
Figure 9: Ease of Performing Tasks <Telework vs In-office>Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2021
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reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
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RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate InstituteTeleworking under the COVID-19 Pandemic
Frequency of telework
In this chapter we will focus on the work styles of teleworkers. We asked teleworkers how much they came tothe office and how much they teleworked by asking their average allocation of time over a week spent working
in the office and teleworking. According to the distribution of telework implementation in numbers of days
based on a five-day work week, “Up to 5 days a week (81–100%)” was the most common at 30.2%, followed by“Up to 1 day a week (up to 20%)” (23.8%) (Figure 10). This indicates that a large number of teleworkers
teleworked at an extreme frequency, such as every day and occasionally. Teleworkers who teleworked at a rateof 4–5 days a week (61–100%) accounted for around half of all teleworkers.
Figure 10: Teleworkers’ Frequency of Telework

Looking at this result by job category, more than half of teleworkers in the following job categories teleworked
at a frequency of 4–5 days a week (61–100%): clerical specialist (64.8%); technical specialist (61.7%), creative
specialist (59.5%), and corporate planning (54.7%) (Figure 11). On the other hand, only 16.2% of teleworkers in
the admin/HR/accounting category teleworked at a rate of “Up to 5 days a week (81–100%),” with around 50%
teleworking 1–2 days a week (up to 40%).

Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2021
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reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
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RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate Institute
Figure 11: Teleworkers’ Frequency of Telework (By Job Category)

Benefits of and dissatisfaction with teleworking
We then examined the benefits of teleworking felt by workers with telework experience (“teleworkers” and“workers with temporary telework experience”) (Figure 12). The top benefit was “Reduction in travel/commutetime” (80.0%), followed by “Less risk of infection with infectious disease” (50.7%), suggesting that workers
actually felt the infection control benefit of working from home, which accounted for most of the breakdown oftelework and was adopted by many workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic as shown in Figures 5 and 7. They
were followed by “Alleviation of stress” (30.8%) and “Less physical burden (health improvement, less fatigue)”(30.5%)—the alleviation of physical and mental burden due to the elimination of commuting to the office.
Meanwhile, only around 10% chose “Feel no benefit in particular” (10.4%), indicating that many of the workers
with telework experience saw some kind of benefit in teleworking.
Figure 12: Benefits of Teleworking

Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2021
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reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
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RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate Institute
Similarly, we asked workers with telework experience their dissatisfaction with teleworking. The top reply was“Difficult to communicate when teleworking” (40.3%) (Figure 13). The fact that communication was among the
top benefits of coming to the office in Figure 8 and that workers found tasks requiring communication moreeasily performed when working in the office than when teleworking in Figure 9 also suggests that
communication is the greatest issue of telework. Other top replies included, “Lack of company's subsidy/support
toward telework” (26.3%) and “A sense of inequality between those who can and who cannot telework (due tojob category or department) (20.3%). Meanwhile, as much as 27.7% chose “None in particular.”Figure 13: Dissatisfaction with Teleworking

Figure 14 shows the dissatisfaction with working from home felt by workers with work-from-home experience
who felt some kind of dissatisfaction. Just as communication was cited as a point of dissatisfaction withteleworking, “Communication is difficult/reduced” (44.8%) ranked high as a point of dissatisfaction with working
from home. However, a greater percentage of respondents chose “Prone to lack exercise or become unhealthy”(56.5%) and “Difficult to switch on and off from work” (50.3%), indicating that the teleworking benefit ofalleviation of burdens due to the reduction of commute time turns into a disadvantage when working from
home, as workers tend to be stuck in home. The survey also revealed that workers still lacked work facilities suchas appliances, monitors, photocopiers, and internet connection, although working from home has begun toprevail and take root after 18 months since the 1st declaration of a state of emergency. Some of the facilities
may be difficult to be prepared by individuals, which suggests the need to provide subsidy and support fordeveloping a work environment and to establish places for work other than the home.

Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2021
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reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
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RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate Institute
Figure 14: Dissatisfaction with Working from HomeAs for workers’ impressions of satellite offices, the top reply was “Easier to concentrate than when working
from home” (51.6%) (Figure 15). “Can be used as the main office close to home” (47.3%) and “Suited for workthat is unsuitable for doing at home (e.g., online meeting)” (36.2%) followed. These top 3 impressions imply thatworkers view satellite offices as more of an alternative to the home or the office than as a touchdown office,which was the mainstream before the pandemic. Satellite offices would be effective as a place that can make up
for workers’ dissatisfaction with working from home as seen in Figure 14 and enjoy the benefits of telework.
Less than 20% of workers chose “Easy to have face-to-face meetings or attend to customers” (18.5%) and “Canbe refreshed by meeting with people” (16.8%), suggesting that many workers envisaged using a private room
instead of a meeting room for several people.
Figure 15: Impression of Satellite Offices

Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2021
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reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
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RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate Institute

Assessment of telework
In this chapter we will look at workers’ assessment of telework. We asked teleworkers*1 to rate their current
work style (a comprehensive rating including not only when teleworking but also when coming to the office)from the perspectives of performance, engagement, and stress, with coming to the office 5 days a week as 100.
The average ratings were as follows: performance 96.7, engagement 87.4, and stress 83.7.
*1 Excludes workers who currently allocate 100% of their work time to their regular office.

We sorted the assessment into three groups*2 for each perspective and indicated their respective percentagesin Figure 16. The percentage of those who replied that performance “improved” under their current work stylecompared to when coming to the office 5 days a week was 23.4%. While there are some concerns that
performance and engagement might decline when teleworking, the sum of “Improved” and “No change”
accounted for more than 50% in both. As for stress, approximately 60% of the teleworkers replied that it was“alleviated,” with the percentage rising to more than 80% when including “No change.”*2 For performance and engagement, ratings of 101 and above were categorized as “Improved,” 100 as “Nochange,” and 99 and below as “Declined.” For stress, ratings of 99 and below were categorized as “Alleviated,”
100 as “No change,” and 101 and above as “Increased.”

Figure 16: Teleworkers’ Assessment of Performance, Engagement, and Stress<Compared to Coming to the Office 5 Days a Week>

Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2021
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reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
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RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate Institute
When examining Figure 16 in terms of telework frequency, performance tended to be “improved” among agreater proportion of teleworkers as the frequency of telework rose (Figure 17).
Figure 17: Assessment of Performance (By Frequency of Telework)

No trend that was caused by frequency of telework was observed in particular for engagement (Figure 18).
Figure 18: Assessment of Engagement (By Frequency of Telework)

As for stress, although there was a difference between “Up to 1 day a week (up to 20%)” and “Up to 2 days aweek (21–40%),” after that approximately 60% felt stress was “alleviated” regardless of frequency (Figure 19).
Figure 19: Assessment of Stress (By Frequency of Telework)

Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2021
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reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
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RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate InstituteOf the above assessments, we will look into the factors that influence the assessment of performance. In
Figure 20, we compared the ease of performing tasks between working in the office and teleworking byassessment of performance. The results show that the group of respondents whose performance improved saw
a larger proportion of workers replying that the ease of performing the task was greater when teleworking for
all the tasks compared to the group of respondents whose performance declined. The group of respondents
whose performance improved also saw a significantly larger proportion of workers replying that the ease of task
performance was the same or greater when teleworking than when working in the office for tasks that
accompanied communication. For “Internal meetings” and “Negotiations and meetings with business partners
and outside parties,” more than 50% of the group with improved performance replied that the ease was thesame between when teleworking and when working in the office or greater when teleworking.
Figure 20: Ease of Performing Tasks (By Assessment of Performance) <Telework vs In-office>Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2021
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reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
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RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate InstituteIndeed, when we look at workers’ dissatisfaction with teleworking by assessment of performance, there is alarge difference in the percentage of those who felt it “difficult to communicate,” with the percentage of thegroup of respondents with declined performance 27.7 points greater than that of the group of those withimproved performance, while most other points of dissatisfaction showed little difference between the twogroups (Figure 21). Since the top dissatisfaction with teleworking was communication-related in Figure 13, theease of communication may have affected performance.
Figure 21: Dissatisfaction with Teleworking (By Assessment of Performance)

Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2021
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reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
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RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate InstituteWe then compared workers’ dissatisfaction with working from home, which accounts for most of the teleworktime (Figure 7), by assessment of performance (Figure 22). There were large differences in the assessment of
performance in dissatisfactions such as “Difficult to switch on and off from work” (difference between “Declined”
and “Improved” (the same applies hereinafter): 25.0 pp), “Difficult to concentrate, prone to distraction” (22.6 pp),and “Lack of space or appliances suited for work” (15.1 pp), in addition to the communication-related
dissatisfaction, which we have focused on thus far as a factor that affects workers’ performance assessment, of“Communication is difficult/reduced” (21.3 pp). Therefore, we believe that a decline in performance is likely
caused by the existence of a certain number of workers who cannot switch on and off from work or concentrate
due to the merging of private space and workspace at home as they cannot create a work environment. Althoughtelework is currently synonymous with working from home, we assume that more workers will be able todemonstrate high performance when teleworking by using satellite offices, which offer the necessary facilities
for a place of work.
Figure 22: Dissatisfaction with Working from Home (By Assessment of Performance)

Declined

Improved"Declined" −(n=597)(n=303)"Improved"

(%)

(%)

(points)

Difficult to switch on and off from work

57.0%

32.0%

25.0

Difficult to concentrate, prone to distraction

35.5%

12.9%

22.6

Communication is difficult/reduced

52.3%

31.0%

21.3

Lack of space or appliances suited for work

36.9%

21.8%

15.1

Lack of equipment such as monitor or photocopier

35.7%

26.7%

9.0

Feel loneliness

16.6%

9.2%

7.4

Difficult to manage subordinates

16.2%

10.6%

5.6

13.7%

8.6%

5.1

24.8%

21.5%

3.3

27.3%

24.1%

3.2

Prone to lack exercise or become unhealthy

56.1%

53.8%

2.3

Work results are difficult to be evaluated

13.1%

10.9%

2.2

Burden of cost (for utility, communications, etc.)

28.3%

30.0%

-1.7

Prone to work long hours

18.6%

20.8%

-2.2

Other

0.7%

0.7%

0.0

None applies

5.5%

13.2%

-7.7

Lack of understanding of family, cannot concentrate
when family is around
House is too small
Unstable/slow communications environment or
network connection(Workers with work-from-home experience whose performance changed by teleworking; MA)Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2021
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reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
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RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate InstituteWork styles after the COVID-19 pandemic
Intention to telework after the pandemic
Lastly, we examined respondents’ needs in work styles going forward.
We asked respondents which work style initiative they wanted to use or implement after the pandemic hasabated and found that the need outweighed the current state in all initiatives related to the place for telework,
which, as a result, is expected to continue to expand (Figure 23). There were also strong needs for moreadvanced initiatives, including “Work-from-home allowance (for supplies, utility cost, etc.)” (37.5%), “Side job
allowed by company” (22.4%), “Workation allowed by company” (14.9%), and “Live and work at two locations orin the suburb or provinces” (11.6%).
Figure 23: Needs in Work Style Initiatives

Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2021
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reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
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RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate Institute
Figure 24 shows the percentage of those who currently telework (“teleworkers”) (Figure 1) and that of those
who wish to use any of the initiatives related to the place for telework (“those who wish to telework”). The
percentage of those who wish to telework as a future work style was 76.1%, greater than the current percentageof teleworkers. This suggests that a further proliferation of telework is still desired even after its rapid spread.
Figure 24: Current Usage of and Need for Telework

When we asked those who wished to telework how much time they wanted to allocate to teleworking, thepercentage of those who wished for extreme time allocations of “Up to 1 day a week (up to 20%)” and “Up to 5days a week (81–100%)” was smaller than the actual percentage of such allocation of time, while the percentageof “2–4 days a week (21–80%)” was larger than the actual state (Figure 25).
Of the workers that wished to telework “up to 5 days a week (81–100%),” those who wanted to telework“100%,” i.e., full-time, accounted for only around 10% of all workers who wished to telework. The need for offices
as a place for work is likely to remain even if telework spread further going forward.
Figure 25: Frequency of Telework <Actual and Intention>

Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2021
The contents of this report are as of the time of writing. Xymax Real Estate Institute does not guarantee their accuracy or completeness. This report may not be
reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
Copyright © 2022 Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

19

RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate Institute
Place of work after the COVID-19 pandemic
As we have examined thus far, many workers are likely to come to the office in addition to teleworking after
the pandemic has abated. Thus, we asked respondents what kind of office they wanted to come to work in,based on the assumption that there was also a telework option. The most popular type of office chosen bynearly half of the respondents (44.6%) was one that had a private room where they can concentrate on work
(Figure 26). This was followed by “Attention is paid to safety/security (e.g., infection control measures)” (37.0%),“There is a space to relax or rest” (36.7%), “There is a restaurant or café space (that can be used for meetings,etc.)” (34.3%), and “It is a space that enables working with healthy mind & body (wellness office)” (29.5%), but
the percentages all dropped from the 2020 survey. Meanwhile, more respondents required features for meetingand congregating with people, as seen in the 7.5-pp increase in “Easy to chat or have random communication
with others” (27.3%). Although private rooms for concentrating are still required, workers seem to have begun
to find value in the office’s role as a place for communication that makes up for the issues of telework.
Figure 26: Features of Offices Workers Want to Come to Work in

Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2021
The contents of this report are as of the time of writing. Xymax Real Estate Institute does not guarantee their accuracy or completeness. This report may not be
reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
Copyright © 2022 Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

20

RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate InstituteWe also asked the respondents what features they placed importance on when assuming they will use asatellite office after the pandemic has abated. The most important feature was that the satellite office was “close
to home” (57.5%), which far outstripped the second most important feature (Figure 27). As we saw in Figure
12, the reduction in commuting and travel time appears to be a major benefit for workers. As in the features
required in an office, “There is a private room to concentrate on work” (28.3%) ranked high, indicating that adiverse range of features are expected in a satellite office.
Figure 27: Important Features when Using a Satellite OfficeGreater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2021
The contents of this report are as of the time of writing. Xymax Real Estate Institute does not guarantee their accuracy or completeness. This report may not be
reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
Copyright © 2022 Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

21

RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate Institute

Summary
In this report, we examined how the work styles of office workers in Greater Tokyo have changed over the 18
months since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and considered their work styles going forward by
examining their needs.
Telework, which spread rapidly as a result of the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, continued to be
implemented at the time of this survey (September 2021), with teleworkers accounting for roughly 70% of all
respondents. We assume that the percentage of teleworkers was larger due in part to the fact that a state of
emergency was declared when this survey was conducted. Furthermore, secondary initiatives that were not inplace last year have gradually spread, as seen in the doubling of the implementation rate of work-from-homeallowances, suggesting that telework is taking root on a full scale.
At the same time, we found that many workers felt dissatisfaction with working from home, which currently is
the main place of telework. Those dissatisfactions included “Prone to lack exercise or become unhealthy” and“Difficult to switch on and off from work.” We also found that workers still lacked a satisfactory work environment
despite the rapid spread of working from home due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, since the home
is nothing more than a place for daily life. Although some of the dissatisfactions with working from home, suchas those related to the work environment, can be removed by using a satellite office, we believe that quite a few
workers are forced to work from home without having been able to resolve their dissatisfaction, as telework iscurrently synonymous with working from home. Since teleworkers who rated their current performance as being
lower than when working only in the office tended to be dissatisfied with the work environment in their home,
an improvement in performance can be expected by working in a satellite office, which many workers have theimpression of being easier to concentrate than when working from home.
In terms of the implementation ratio of telework, while currently a large percentage of workers teleworked at
an extreme frequency of “Up to 1 day a week” or “Up to 5 days a week,” more workers intended to telework for“Up to 2–4 days a week” going forward, indicating a gap between the current situation and future intention.
Although we have gotten used to telework after some time has passed since it began to spread, it remains
difficult to determine the optimal work style under an extraordinary situation such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Xymax REI will continue to conduct company surveys and worker surveys in parallel to capture the changes inthe trend of work styles and workplaces amid the situation that changes with every moment.

Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2021
The contents of this report are as of the time of writing. Xymax Real Estate Institute does not guarantee their accuracy or completeness. This report may not be
reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
Copyright © 2022 Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

22

RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate Institute
Survey Overview
Survey period

September 2021

Targetrespondents(1) Screening: 5,000 men and women aged 18 and above(2) Main survey: Those who replied in the screening that their profession was either an officer orstaff of a company or organization, whose job category was managerial, specialized/technical,
clerical or sales, whose regular office was located in Greater Tokyo (Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama
and Chiba prefectures), and whose current and pre-COVID-19 pandemic principal workplace was
the office or home.

Numberofvalid answers

2,060

Geographicalcoverage

Greater Tokyo (Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba prefectures)

Survey method

OnlineGreater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2021
The contents of this report are as of the time of writing. Xymax Real Estate Institute does not guarantee their accuracy or completeness. This report may not be
reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
Copyright © 2022 Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

23

RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate InstituteAttributes of Respondents
%

n

%

n

Male aged 20-29

2.5%

51

1–9

6.9%

142

Male aged 30-39

9.2%

190

10–49

11.8%

243

Male aged 40-49

19.5%

401

50–99

8.9%

183

Male aged 50-59

25.2%

519

100–299

14.1%

291

Male aged 60 or older

12.4%

256

300–999

15.1%

312

68.8%

1,417

1,000–2,999

13.1%

270

Female aged 20-29

6.3%

130

3,000 or more

27.2%

561

Female aged 30-39

10.3%

212

Don't know

2.8%

58

Female aged 40-49

8.9%

184

Manufacturing

20.2%

417

Female aged 50-59

4.8%

99

Information & communications

16.5%

340

(Male total)

Gender andage

Form ofemploymentof company

0.9%

18

Finance & insurance

10.8%

222

643

Services, N.E.C.

10.7%

221

Sales

23.6%

486

Wholesale & retail trade

9.7%

199

Technical specialist

20.5%

422

Real estate & goods rental and leasing

5.4%

111

General office work/reception/secretary

19.6%

404

Construction

5.4%

111

Admin/HR/accounting

16.4%

337

Other & industries unable to classify

4.0%

82

technical services

3.9%

81

Transport & postal activities

3.9%

80

(Female total)

category

employees

31.2%

Female aged 60 or older

Job

Number of

Scientific research, professional &Corporate planning

10.7%

221

Creative specialist

2.4%

50

Clerical specialist

2.2%

46

Education, learning support

2.4%

50

Other

4.6%

94

Medical, health care & welfare

1.7%

36

Officer of company/organization

8.3%

170

Electricity, gas, heat supply and water

1.7%

34

& amusement services

1.2%

25

Compound services
Government, except elsewhere

1.0%

20

0.8%
classified
Accommodations, eating & drinking services0.6%17Agriculture & forestry

0.0%

1

Staff of company/organization(management)

Living-related and personal services
23.4%

483

55.4%

1,142

Staff of company/organization(Regular staff other thanmanagement)
Staff of company/organization(Other than regular staff)

Industry

12.9%

265

13

The percentage mix in the charts contained in this report are rounded to the first decimal place and therefore may not add up to 100%.

For further inquiries please contact below:
Xymax Real Estate Institutehttps://soken.xymax.co.jp | E-MAIL: info-rei@xymax.co.jp

Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2021
The contents of this report are as of the time of writing. Xymax Real Estate Institute does not guarantee their accuracy or completeness. This report may not be
reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
Copyright © 2022 Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

24