TOKYO: The proportion of companies in Tokyo that are using teleworking surged to 63 percent in April from 24 percent in March, according to a survey by the metropolitan government.

An increasing number of companies are introducing teleworking apparently in response to the spread of the new coronavirus.

The metropolitan government is encouraging more businesses to use teleworking by providing subsidies to small firms.

The survey randomly selected companies with employees of 30 or more. Some 400 businesses gave answers.

The proportion of large companies using teleworking grew from 45 percent in March to 80 percent in April, the survey showed.

The share of midsize companies adopting teleworking rose from 25 percent to 71 percent and that of small firms increased from 19 percent to 54 percent.

The proportion of teleworking employees grew to nearly 50 percent on average in April.

By industry, teleworking was adopted by 76 percent of companies in the information telecommunication, financial and services sectors and 55 percent of companies at the construction, manufacturing, retail sectors.

The metropolitan government was initially promoting teleworking as part of efforts to ease traffic congestion during the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, which have been postponed to summer 2021 due to the coronavirus crisis.

When the coronavirus outbreak spread nationwide in March, the metropolitan government created a subsidy program to provide up to 2.5 million yen to help businesses purchase equipment necessary for teleworking in a bid to prevent the spread of the virus.

"We hope that teleworking will take root as a new work style and a countermeasure against infectious diseases," an official of the metropolitan government's Industrial and Labor Affairs Bureau said.

JIJI Press