Xymax Real Estate Institute

RESEARCH REPORTThe Effectiveness of Setting Up a Workplace
Other than in Central Tokyo
From Surveys on Office Workers’ Commute

October 4, 2019Japanese companies are accelerating their efforts in workstyle reforms and are promoting a diverse range ofworkstyles that are not bound by time and/or place. These new workstyles are also a major topic for individual
workers themselves in improving productivity and work-life balance. To capture the changes of workstyles andthe workplace from the viewpoint of office workers, Xymax Real Estate Institute (“Xymax REI”) conductedquestionnaire surveys of office workers working in the Greater Tokyo Area and published the results. In its
third survey carried out in February 2019, Xymax REI focused on the commute of workers and analyzed theimpact of commuting stress due to long commutes on work satisfaction, productivity, and engagement in theorganization.*
In March 2019, Xymax REI carried out a questionnaire survey of registered users of ZXY, a shared officeservice provided by Xymax for corporations, in order to explore the flexible office service, which is attracting
attention as a means for telework and expanding its market in recent years. This report examines theeffectiveness of having options of workplaces mainly from the perspective of location (central Tokyo or
periphery), based on the results of the above two surveys.
*Effect of commuting stress on the working people’s satisfaction—Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2019, released on June 4, 2019https://www.xymax.co.jp/english/research/images/pdf/20190604.pdf<Main Findings>
1. The effect of commute on office workers
Commuting time of 45 minutes or more (one-way) has a negative effect on the percentage ofworkers who feel they “enjoy working every day.”Commuting from the periphery to central Tokyo may cause greater stress than the other way
around, regardless of the length of commute.

2. Differences in usage needs and effects by location of shared office









We categorized respondents into “Central Tokyo” and “Periphery” groups based on the locationof the shared office they used the most frequently and examined their characteristics. A large
percentage of Central Tokyo users worked in a sales job, while many Periphery users lived
with their spouse, child or other family members.
The average hours of use per use was 2.3 hours among Central Tokyo users and longer among
Periphery users at 3.6 hours. As much as approximately 16% of Periphery users used ashared office for eight hours or longer.
The time that could be reduced by using ZXY was 51.0 minutes per use on average among
Central Tokyo users and 64.1 minutes on average among Periphery users, longer thanCentral Tokyo users.
Periphery users also had generally higher scores in the specific effects of using a shared office,indicating they felt a greater effect than Central Tokyo users.
When comparing the commuting time and commuting stress of going to a ZXY office near thehome with when going to the office they belonged to, the commuting time was reduced by
23.1 minutes for Central Tokyo users and 39.3 minutes for Periphery users, while
commuting stress was reduced by 2.3 points for Central Tokyo users and 4.2 points for
Periphery users. This suggests that the reduction effect was greater among Periphery users inboth elements.

The Effectiveness of Setting Up a Workplace Other than in Central Tokyo
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 © 2019 Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

1

RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate Institute

1. The effect of commute on office workers
Commuting time of 45 minutes or more (one-way) has a negative effect on the percentage ofworkers who feel they “enjoy working every day.”Commuting from the periphery to central Tokyo may cause greater stress than the other way
around, regardless of the length of commute.

In Chapter 1, we analyze the results of the Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2019, which targeted office
workers working in the Greater Tokyo area. In this survey, valid responses were obtained from 2,009 male andfemale respondents aged between 20 and 69 whose profession was company or organization executive,
company or organization worker, or self-employed (excluding restaurant owners, retailers, interpersonal
service providers) and principal workplace (office) was in the Greater Tokyo Area (Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama,
Chiba prefectures). Please refer to the released report mentioned above for the basic analysis results.
First of all, we examined how the length of commute affected workers’ motivation and engagement. A
statistical analysis of the impact of commuting time on multiple elements such as “work satisfaction,”“enjoying working every day,” and “sense of belonging to one’s place of employment” indicated there was asignificant impact on “enjoying working every day.”Figure 1 shows the relationship between the commuting time from home to the workplace*1 and thepercentage of workers who feel they enjoy working every day. The more the number of asterisks (*) there are,the more statistically significant (reliable) the impact is. Figures below zero mean that there is a negative
impact on the percentage of workers who feel they enjoy working every day. From the survey results, we
confirmed that a negative impact starts appearing from a commute time of 35 minutes and that the impact
becomes more significant for a commute time of 45 minutes or more.
*1 The door-to-door time it takes from home to the workplace (one way) using the respondent’s regular meansof commute (e.g. train, bus, car, bicycle, foot)Figure 1: Impact of Commute Time on Percentage of Respondents Feeling They Enjoy Working
Every Day

Commuting time

Enjoying working every day

20-25 min-0.07925-30 min-0.11630-35 min-0.09535-40 min-0.239 *40-45 min-0.243 *45 min or more

-0.341 ***(Ref.) 60 min or more

-0.344 ***(n=1,593)*p<0.1; **p<0.05; ***p<0.01

The Effectiveness of Setting Up a Workplace Other than in Central Tokyo
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 © 2019 Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

2

RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate InstituteSecondly, in addition to the length of commute we focused on the combination of the place of residence
and the place of work: in other words, the relationship between the direction of commute and commuting
stress.*2 In this survey, we found that commuting stress was proportional to the length of commute, *3 but the
manifestation of stress differed depending on the direction of the commute.
*2 Commuting stress rated on a scale of 0 (smallest) to 10 (largest)*3 Refer to Effect of commuting stress on the working people’s satisfaction—Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2019

Figure 2 shows the average commuting time and commute stress for each combination of place ofresidence and place of work for the following three Greater Tokyo areas: (1) Five central wards (Chiyoda, Chuo,
Minato, Shinjuku, Shibuya Wards); (2) 18 wards (the 23 wards of Tokyo excluding the five central wards), and(3) Suburb (entire Greater Tokyo excluding the 23 wards of Tokyo).
Figure 2: Average Commuting Time (Upper Row) and Average Commuting Stress (Lower Row) by
Place of Residence and Place of Work

Workplace
31.9 min 38.5 min 68.3 min

68.7 min 67.1 min 40.1 min

18

5
wards wards

SuburbSuburbPlace of residence

5 wards 18 wards(n=1,745)

4.5

3.8

4.7

45.2 min 36.5 min 68.5 min
5.7
6.5

4.1
6.1

5.9

Legend (commuting stress)
6.5 or more (Large)
5.5-6.5
4.5-5.5
3.5-4.5 (Small)

4.1

For the groups of respondents living in the 18 wards and those living in the suburbs, the commute time andcommute stress was the smallest when commuting within the same area. This implies that proximity between
work and home is effective in reducing commute stress. Furthermore, the average commuting time of eithergroup was less than 45 minutes, within the range where the percentage of workers feeling they enjoy working
every day, as described earlier, is not negatively affected significantly.
However, the group of respondents living in the five central wards tended to show smaller stress whencommuting to the 18 wards, which was a longer commute, than when commuting within the same area, which
was the shortest commute. In addition, the group of those living in the 18 wards did not show a proportionate
relationship between commuting time and stress, demonstrating a difference in stress of only 0.2 even though
the commute to the suburbs was 23 minutes longer than when commuting to the five central wards.
These indicate that commuting from the periphery to central Tokyo may cause greater stress than the otherway around. Since most of the offices in Greater Tokyo are currently concentrated in central Tokyo, trains
traveling from the periphery to central Tokyo are congested in general, which may be causing workers to feelstronger stress regardless of the length of the commute.

The Effectiveness of Setting Up a Workplace Other than in Central Tokyo
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 © 2019 Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

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RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate Institute

2. Differences in usage needs and effects by location of sharedoffice2-1. Difference in usage needs by location of most frequently used shared office (Central Tokyo/Periphery)

We categorized respondents into “Central Tokyo” and “Periphery” groups based on the location of
the shared office they used the most frequently and examined their characteristics. A large
percentage of Central Tokyo users worked in a sales position, while many Periphery users lived with
their spouse, child or other family members.



The average hours of use per use was 2.3 hours among Central Tokyo users and longer among
Periphery users at 3.6 hours. As much as approximately 16% of Periphery users used a sharedoffice for eight hours or longer.

In the previous chapter, it was implied that not only reducing commute time but also avoiding commuting
to central Tokyo reduced commuting stress. In Chapter 2, we examine the effectiveness of setting up a
workplace other than in central Tokyo by analyzing the results of a questionnaire survey of registered users of
ZXY, a shared office service provided by Xymax for corporations, from the perspective of location (central
Tokyo or periphery).
We categorized the 1,068 respondents of the questionnaire survey who replied that they used ZXY into twogroups of “Central Tokyo users” and “Periphery users” based on the location of the ZXY office they used themost frequently, the former being the five central wards and the latter being the entire Greater Tokyo
excluding the five central wards, and compared their characteristics.
We will first examine the characteristics of usage needs by location based on the difference in the profiles of
the groups.
Figure 3 indicates the job type percentages of each group. “Sales/marketing” accounted for the most ineither group, but the percentage was larger among Central Tokyo users (45.5%). Central Tokyo users in sales
and marketing jobs may have a need to drop by at a shared office when visiting a client. Among Peripheryusers, there was a relatively large percentage of desk work jobs such as “white-collar specialist job such as
research analysis and patent legal affairs” and “general clerical work, reception, secretary.”
Figure 3: Job Type—By Location of Most Frequently Used ZXY Office

The Effectiveness of Setting Up a Workplace Other than in Central Tokyo
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 © 2019 Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

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RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate Institute
Figure 4 is a comparison of the results of whether the respondent was living with a family member.
Periphery users had higher scores in a majority of reply items, especially in “spouse” (78.2%) and “pre-school
child” (26.6%), which showed a significant difference from Central Tokyo users. Users with a pre-school child
may be using ZXY in the periphery close to home as a telework base to reduce commuting time in an effort tobalance work with childcare. Meanwhile, Central Tokyo users had a higher percentage (23.5%) of “not livingwith any family member who applies to the above” than Periphery users, indicating that many of them may beunmarried.
Figure 4: Family Member Living with Respondent—By Location of Most Frequently Used ZXY Office(Multiple answers)

There were differences in the usage needs of each group in the results of the hours of ZXY use per use(Figure 5).
Most Central Tokyo users used ZXY for a short amount of time, with less than 3 hours (the sum of “less than
2 hours” and “2 hours or more”) accounting for 70% and with an average of 2.3 hours.
Meanwhile, a majority of Periphery users used ZXY for 3 hours or more (average 3.6 hours), with as much as
15.9% of users using it for 8 hours or longer. This indicates that there is a certain number of users who
regularly use a ZXY office for almost an entire day, suggesting that workstyles have become more varied.
Figure 5: Hours of Use of ZXY per Use—By Location of Most Frequently Used ZXY Office

The Effectiveness of Setting Up a Workplace Other than in Central Tokyo
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 © 2019 Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

5

RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate Institute2-2. Difference in the effects of use by location of most frequently used shared office (Central Tokyo or
Periphery)

The time that could be reduced by using ZXY was 64.1 minutes per use on average among
Periphery users, longer than the 51.0 minutes of Central Tokyo users.



Periphery users also had generally higher scores in the specific effects of using a shared office,indicating they felt a greater effect than Central Tokyo users.

When comparing the commuting time and commuting stress of going to a ZXY office near thehome with when going to the office they belonged to, the commuting time was reduced by 23.1
minutes for Central Tokyo users and 39.3 minutes for Periphery users, while commuting stress was
reduced by 2.3 points for Central Tokyo users and 4.2 points for Periphery users. This suggeststhat the reduction effect was greater among Periphery users in both elements.

We then examined the difference in the effects of use felt by each group. The time that could be reduced byusing ZXY was 51.0 minutes per use on average among Central Tokyo users and 64.1 minutes on averageamong Periphery users, a longer time reduction than Central Tokyo users.
Periphery users also had generally higher scores in the specific effects of using a shared office, especially in“Less stress” and “more time with family,” which showed a large difference from Central Tokyo users (Figure 6).
On the other hand, Central Tokyo users had higher scores in the following items: “Less overtime work,” “moretime to respond to customers,” and “more frequent visits to customers.”
Figure 6: Effects Felt from Using ZXY—By Location of Most Frequently Used ZXY Office (Multiple answers)

The Effectiveness of Setting Up a Workplace Other than in Central Tokyo
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 © 2019 Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

6

RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate Institute2-1 indicated that there were users who worked at a ZXY office from the morning for the entire day (Figure5). Therefore, we compared the effects between the two user groups of going to a ZXY office in the morninginstead of to the office of the company the user works for.
Figure 7 compares the commute time and commute stress of when commuting to the office of the company
and when going to a ZXY office close to home in the morning. *4 When comparing the commute time and stressof commuting to a ZXY office close to home with when commuting to the office of the company, the commutetime was reduced by 23.1 minutes among Central Tokyo users and 39.3 minutes among Periphery users, while
commute stress was reduced by 2.3 points among Central Tokyo users and 4.2 points among Periphery users.
The reduction effect was larger among Periphery users for both elements.
*4 The targets of the comparison were the 393 respondents who replied that they sometimes used a ZXY officeclose to home as a satellite office and went there in the morning instead of to the office of the company.

Figure 7: Differences between Commuting to the Office of the Company
and Commuting to a ZXY OfficeCommute time to office of company(n=1,068)

Commute time to ZXY(n=393)Difference in commute time
Commute stress to office of company(n=1,068)

Commute stress to ZXY(n=393)Difference in commute stressCentral Tokyo

Periphery

56.9 min65.4 min33.8 min26.1 min23.1 min39.3 min

5.8

6.6

3.5

2.4

2.3

4.2

The Effectiveness of Setting Up a Workplace Other than in Central Tokyo
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 © 2019 Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

7

RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate Institute

3. Summary
In Chapter 1, the results of the two analyses implied that commuting for less than 45 minutes from central
Tokyo to the periphery was effective for office workers to reduce stress and enjoy working.
In Chapter 2, the results of the questionnaire survey of users of ZXY, a shared office service that actually has
offices in the periphery, indicated the effectiveness of setting up a workplace other than in central Tokyo.
Frequent users of an office in the periphery tend to be living with a pre-school child and work at a ZXY office
for an entire day instead of at the office of the company they belong to. This shows that offices in the
periphery respond to different needs from offices in central Tokyo. When working at a ZXY office for an entire
day, the reduction of commuting time and stress compared to when commuting to the office of the company
is larger among Periphery users than Central Tokyo users. We also found that Periphery users felt a greater
advantage from the closeness between work and home, as they felt less stress and spent more time withfamily as a result of using an office in the periphery to a greater degree than Central Tokyo users.
Based on the above results, we believe that providing various workplace options in the periphery close to
the residential areas of employees apart from offices in Central Tokyo would lead to reduced stress andimproved engagement and productivity of office workers, which may in turn have positive effects in securingpersonnel such as by preventing employee turnover and strengthening recruitment capabilities.
Individual workers will also benefit from the proximity between work and home. If workers can work flexibly
without being bound by time or place, they will have more options for work and life when faced with major life
events such as childbirth, childcare, nursing care, and fighting diseases, enabling them to continue working
with peace of mind. Unlike times when the only option was to take leave of absence or resign from work when
it became difficult to commute a long distance to the office in central Tokyo due to time or physical restraints,
the increase of workers who autonomously continue working for a long period of time is expected to havebeneficial effects on corporate activities as well.
From the perspective of the real estate business, on the other hand, the periphery is an area with few officebuildings. Therefore, workplaces are being provided in the periphery not only in office buildings but also by
utilizing excess floor space in commercial facilities and convenience facilities (e.g. outlets of financial
institutions, post offices, station buildings). The progress of a “work-life mix,” which is to integrate the places
for work and for living, is a beneficial trend for companies confronted with the managerial issues of securinglabor and improving the productivity of each worker as well as supporting the imminent arrival of an era
where workers of various circumstances continue working together.
Xymax REI intends to continue its research of companies and office workers to examine the impact of thesedevelopments on workstyles and offices.

The Effectiveness of Setting Up a Workplace Other than in Central Tokyo
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 © 2019 Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

8

RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate InstituteDetails of Greater Tokyo Office Worker Survey 2019《Survey Overview》
Time of Survey: February 2019; Target Area: the Greater Tokyo Area (Tokyo and Kanagawa, Saitama, and Chiba
prefectures); Survey Method: Internet survey
Study Sample: 1) the Screening Survey was conducted in 20,000 men and women aged 15 to 69 years; 2) the Main Survey
was conducted in 2,144 men and women aged 20 to 69 years who answered in the Screening Survey that his/her“employment status is a company or organization executive, company or organization manager, company or organization
worker, or self-employed individual (excluding restaurant owner, retailer, and interpersonal service provider), and the chief
workplace (office) is located in the Greater Tokyo Area (Tokyo and the 3 neighboring prefectures).” 2,009 valid responses
were received.

《Profile of Respondents》

The Effectiveness of Setting Up a Workplace Other than in Central Tokyo
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 © 2019 Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

9

RESEARCH REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate InstituteDetails of ZXY Registered User Survey 2019《Survey Overview》
Time of Survey: March 2019; Survey Method: Internet survey; Survey Targets: Registered users of ZXY, a shared officeservice for corporations. 2,039 valid responses were received. The targets of this survey are the 1,068 respondents who
replied that they used ZXY.

《Profile of Respondents》
Sales/marketingTechnical specialist job such as R&D,
design, SE
Admin, HR, accounting, planning, etc.

％

n

％

n

41.3%

441

Spouse

73.8%

788

23.7%

253

Pre-school child

38.3%

409

21.3%

227

Child of school age or older

22.7%

242

2.7%

29

Parent(s) of oneself or spouse

9.3%

99

2.5%

27

Grandparent(s) of oneself or spouse

1.0%

11

0.8%

9

19.2%

205

48.4%

517

25.3%

270

White-collar specialist job such as
research analysis and patent legal
Job typeaffairs
General clerical work, reception,
Creative specialist job such as editor,

memberliving insamehousehold

Family member requiring nursing care

2.4%

26

Site management, supervision

1.5%

16

Medical or educational specialist job

0.2%

2

Other

4.4%

47 Prefecture Kanagawa

Tokyo

87.7%

937

of

Saitama

11.9%

127

Chiba

designer, writer

Prefecture of

Family(can be chosen with options above)
Not living with any family member who
applies to the above
Tokyo

Kanagawa

7.6%

81

nearest

11.8%

126

Saitama

1.1%

12

station

Ibaraki

1.1%

12

of workplace Chiba

0.8%

9

of home Gunma

0.1%

1

Other

2.7%

29

1.4%

15

neareststation

Other

Note: The percentage mix (%) in the charts contained in this report may not add up to 100% due to rounding.

Please contact below for inquiries on this report
Xymax Real Estate Institutehttps://soken.xymax.co.jp| E-MAIL: info-rei@xymax.co.jp

The Effectiveness of Setting Up a Workplace Other than in Central Tokyo
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 © 2019 Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

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