The Japanese government and the Japan Business Federation will launch a "Premium Friday" campaign in an effort to reduce excessive working hours and stimulate domestic spending.

Japan's workplace culture of long hours and unpaid overtime has been in the spotlight in recent months, with government agents staging large-scale investigations of companies suspected of overtime violations.

The voluntary program began on Friday aims to encourage companies to let employees off work at 3:00 pm local time on the last Friday of every month. 

Over 2,000 companies will participate in the campaign, offer discounts on food, travel, and other leisure-time purchases.‍

Takuma Tagawa, at Work-Life Balance, sees the Premium Friday campaign as a needed nudge in the right direction.

“We are facing a lack of manpower. To increase competition with the idea of this upper limit and working efficiently, that is a change in attitude, leading to the eradication of ‘karoshi’ (death-by-overwork), and excessive overtime,” Tagawa said.

However, there are possible complications in the program's implementation.

Toshihiro Nagahama, at the Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute, is afraid the campaign may hurt the efficiency.

“The last Friday of the month, we are so busy with our work, if we are forced not to work on that day, it could delay business or effect work in negative way,” Nagahama said.

Overall, plenty of Japanese workers are ready for a break, as the imagination becomes narrow due to long time work.