Abstract
NHK has been conducting the Japanese Time Use Survey every five years since 1960. The 13th survey was carried out in 2020, which turned out to capture not only the social change since 2015 but also people's lifestyles amid the spreading of COVID-19. The principle findings are as follows.
– Average working hours for men with jobs, which had remained high at around 8 hours and 30 minutes per weekday, has declined to 7 hours and 52 minutes.
– Business commuters during peak time have decreased, and those working from home have exceeded 10% both in the Tokyo and Osaka metropolitan areas, showing signs of expanding off-peak commuting and work from home.
– Time spent on housework has increased both for adult males and females, affected by an increase in men's housework time due to a decrease in men who work long hours, an increase in time spent on childcare for child-rearing parents, and an increase in housework time for those aged 70 and over.
– Middle-aged people's sleeping time has increased as they have come to go to bed earlier while elderly people's sleeping time has decreased as they have come stay up late to watch television or recorded TV programs.
– The overall average of TV-viewing time was 3 hours and 1 minute per weekday. The percentages of people who watched television in a day on weekday, Saturday, and Sunday decreased to less than 80%, respectively.
– Regarding time allocation of a day, time spent on work and other “obligatory activities” showed a continued downward trend. Following the 2015 survey, people keep spending time on “necessary activities” such as meals and personal chores rather than on “free-time activities.”
– Presumably, the underlying factors for changes found in the 2020 survey is the changes in society and people's attitudes, which have become more tangible or been accelerated because of the pandemic. Some entirely new trends found in the survey may be recoiled depending on the coronavirus situation but are unlikely to return to their former status.
