The Most Crowded Area in Tokyo Two Summers from Now?! “Dagayasando Telework Days” Implementation Report
Hello! I am O from the Public Relations Group. To start off, do you know which area will be the most crowded in Tokyo two summers from now? According to one theory, the area around our office, “Dagayasando” (Sendagaya + Kita-sando), is said to be one of the most congested areas in the city…
The reason is that the New National Stadium is located in Dagayasando.
The New National Stadium, the main venue for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games (hereinafter referred to as Tokyo 2020), which is just two years away, will welcome many people from all over the world, especially on the day of the opening ceremony. (According to one estimate, the number of people using JR Sendagaya Station around 9:00 AM during Tokyo 2020 will reach approximately 30,000 every 15 minutes. That is about 15 times the usual number!)
Construction of the New National Stadium is steadily progressing toward the event two years from now.
Against this backdrop, there is a project related to work-style reform being promoted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications in collaboration with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Its name is “Telework”! This movement encourages teleworking (a general term for working outside the office, such as working from home or mobile work) with the aim of promoting flexible work styles and alleviating congestion during the Tokyo 2020 period. Since 2017, companies and organizations in the Tokyo metropolitan area have been encouraged to implement teleworking simultaneously.
With the New National Stadium nearby, Dagayasando will become the most crowded area in Tokyo in two years. In other words, it can be said to be the area where the implementation of teleworking is most needed in the city.
Based on this situation, as the “Official PR Agency for Dagayasando,” our company, which has been responsible for PR activities in the area, did not limit participation to ourselves. We collaborated with companies and organizations around the New National Stadium to involve the entire Dagayasando area in an initiative called “Dagayasando Telework Days”!
Within the company, we designated the period from Monday, July 23 to Wednesday, July 25 as recommended telework days, and approximately 200 employees worked remotely. Here is the scene on the morning of Monday, July 23… There was almost no one there.
Furthermore, for this “Dagayasando Telework Days,” we distributed telework promotion flyers to companies and organizations around the New National Stadium, calling for participation in the activity across the entire area! On this day, we visited Cross Media Publishing, which also operates the fatigue recovery gym “ZERO GYM.”
Of course, we also called for teleworking through “Dagayasando TIMES,” a web media outlet that shares information about Dagayasando!
Additionally, as part of this “Dagayasando Telework Days” initiative, we prepared satellite offices at approximately 30 locations in Tokyo in advance to create an environment where employees could work outside. Some members commented, “I was actually able to concentrate better on my work in a different environment than usual.”
To date, our company has been working to create environmental systems that enable “flexible and diverse work styles”
The greatest lesson was that “having all employees telework” is not necessarily the correct answer. Each person has different job responsibilities, and the broad framework of “telework” alone cannot support the “work style” of every employee. It is important that each individual can choose their way of working, and “telework” can be one of those options. “Work-style reform” is not something to be imposed; rather, it may be about each individual finding the “work style that suits them.”
I would be delighted if the standards for “new work styles” for 2020 and beyond were born here in Dagayasando. Well then, let’s do our best at work today!
