FOCUS: Local gov't offices start introducing 'telework' system+

TOKYO, March 5 Kyodo -
As maintaining a work-life balance and tackling global warming have both become
key issues, the Japanese government is promoting a ''teleworking'' system in
which people are able to work at home using computers and the Internet, and
reduce emissions at the same time by not commuting.



In 2007, the government laid out a plan to increase the number of teleworkers
to 13 million by 2010, twice the figure in 2005, hoping to promote the system
in both public and private entities.
Local governments, which had been lagging behind private firms in introducing
such a work style, have started introducing it, prompted by their employees'
desire to juggle their careers and family life through the use of
information-technology tools.
Some local governments think that the system is also beneficial to them as it
would allow the employees to work even when they cannot commute in emergency
situations, such as the outbreaks of infectious diseases and earthquakes.
In 2008, Saga became the first prefecture to introduce the work-from-home
system on a trial basis and will start it in full swing from April.
Shizuko Saeki, 39, who works in the prefecture's office of agriculture and
forestry in Karatsu, volunteered as one of the 11 participants of the pilot
program. Of the 11, eight are male employees, according to the prefecture.
''I wanted to say 'welcome back' to my two children when they come home,'' she
said.
One of the rooms in her home, decorated with pictures of her family, has been
her work office once a week, sometimes with her 8-year-old son Shintaro and
6-year-old daughter Sumire at her side.
''I am able to work quite smoothly here. Usually there are no visitors without
an appointment and all incoming calls are for me,'' Saeki said.
''She has been skillfully dividing her workload, by handling duties involving
(residents') private information at the office and conducting other paperwork
at home,'' her boss said.
The prefecture provides personal computers to their teleworking employees for
business use, which can have access to the LAN system of the prefectural
offices.
Keishi Matsumoto, 54, deputy chief of the Saga Ceramics Research Laboratory,
works once a week from the home of his 80-year-old mother who became hemiplegic
after suffering a stroke.
Although he has to work and take care of his mother at the same time, he said
he can make better use of time when he works at her house because it takes 90
minutes to go to work from his home.
Aomori Prefecture has introduced a technology which allows its employees to
remotely operate office computers from their homes while preventing them from
extracting data from the computers, following a joint simulation project with
the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications last fall in which some 80
employees participated.
Officials of the information system division of the prefecture said the
technology will allow employees to work from home when they cannot go to work
due to heavy snow or while taking care of their children.
Backed by enthusiastic support of female employees with children, the
prefecture is set to revise its work regulations in fiscal 2010 beginning in
April to introduce teleworking.
However, some prefectures and municipal governments are still reluctant to
employ the system as the work of local governments involves counter services
and that the work hours of the employees are bound by strict regulations.
The city of Omihachiman in Shiga Prefecture introduced the work-from-home
system on a trial basis in fiscal 2005 but decided not to formally introduce
it, citing security concerns.
==Kyodo
2010-03-05 22:55:16