Japanese Firms Are Offering Rs 1 Lakh ‘Tropical Trips’ To Their Employees For This Reason

For millions of Japanese, springtime is an unpleasant period due to the nation’s hay fever season, which usually surges from late February to mid-April and hampers productivity among employees. Companies in Japan are providing their allergy-susceptible employees with a free “tropical escape” to areas with reduced pollen levels. The purpose of this programme is to improve employee efficiency and reduce symptoms throughout the hay fever season.

According to The Washington Post, Naoki Shigihara, a Japanese citizen, suffers from hay fever-like symptoms that impede his ability to stay focused at work. But his employer, Aisaac, an IT business, offers him a programme called “tropical escape.” It even proposes to pay $1,300 (over Rs 1 lakh) towards the temporary relocation as a subsidy.

“I definitely felt the symptoms going away, and the fact of just being in Okinawa was great,” Shigihara told the news outlet.

“After coming back to Tokyo, my symptoms started to worsen again,” he added.

Shigihara, a 20-year-old engineer, has relocated to Okinawa, a tropical southern Japanese island for the past two years to take advantage of the company’s flexible policies.

Every spring, millions of employees in Japan become afflicted with hay fever, making it an expensive public health issue for the country’s economy.

As of 2019, the Japan Society of Immunology, Allergology and Infection in Otorhinolaryngology estimated that over 40% of Japanese people suffer from hay fever symptoms. This indicates that, according to the World Health Organization, the proportion of people in Japan who suffer from hay fever is higher than the 10 to 30% global norm.

Currently, the Japanese government and a few companies are trying to lessen the impact of the allergy.

According to a survey conducted by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, in recognition of this difficulty, 20% of companies now permit remote work throughout hay fever season, with many even subsidising the related expenses.

The economic costs resulting from lower employee productivity in allergy season were estimated to be $1.5 billion per day by the Panasonic Corporation based on a survey of private enterprises.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has declared hay fever a “national disease” that impairs productivity. The government has now raised its funding for countermeasures and intends to eliminate artificially planted cedar woods by 20% over the next decade, replacing them with trees that release less pollen.