This Japanese Company Pays Its Workers to Sleep

What if your company pays you to sleep? It sounds pretty weird but a Japanese company is doing just that. Kazuhiko Moriyama, CEO of the Japanese company Crazy Inc., is going above and beyond the norms of motivating employees.

Moriyama believes Japan needs a new relationship with sleep. Which is why the staff at Crazy Inc. who get at least six hours of sleep a night are awarded points worth up to $570 a year that can be exchanged for meals at the company’s canteen.

In Japan, there’s a culture of hard work and long hours, people are sacrificing their personal needs just to serve their company. But this has led to a severe issue, extreme sleep deprivation to the point of deaths. The phenomenon even has its own name: karoshi (Japanese for "overwork death").

Overworked to death

31-year-old journalist Miwa Sado died of congestive heart failure after working 159 hours of overtime in a month in 2013. A 57-year-old mechanic died of fatal arrhythmia in October 2018 after working 100 hours of overtime in a month. The Japan Times say that teachers are medical staff are among the professions most at risk of overwork.

The Japanese Society of Sleep Research has warned that 71% of Japan’s adult males usually get less than seven hours of sleep every night. Even worse, 30% of Japanese adults now rely on alcoholic drinks to fall asleep, which could lead to more health problems in the future.

The importance of a well-rested workforce

But Crazy Inc.’s employees are free of such fears. Moriyama said “You have to protect workers’ rights, otherwise the country itself will weaken.” His attitude reflects a growing awareness of the importance of health and wellbeing in Japan.

Japan’s Ministry of Health also issued a guidance for employers to help eliminate what it calls the “sleep is expendable” attitude, and mention the importance of sleep and the benefits of a well-rested workforce.

For companies and organisations that are used to overworking their staff, there are some very good reasons to change their ways and encourage employees to take better care of themselves. A 2009 Rand study found that ill health and higher mortality rates were all blamed for an estimated $138 billion (RM579 billion)  a year productivity loss to the Japanese economy, which is worth 2.92% of their GDP.

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