TOKYO: A Japanese government survey has found 34.6 percent of the working respondents experienced teleworking due to the spread of the novel coronavirus, the Cabinet Office said Sunday.

The survey also showed many young residents of the Tokyo metropolitan area are interested in moving to other regions.

In the Tokyo area, 55.5 percent of the working respondents experienced teleworking regularly or sporadically.

Regarding what should be done to spread teleworking further, many mentioned changes to staff meetings and decision making, digitization of documents and accelerated shifts to paperless offices, and improvements in access to internal systems at companies.

Of the respondents in their 20s living in the Tokyo metropolitan area, 27.7 percent said they have grown more interested in moving to other regions, including those whose interest increased somewhat.

The percentage was higher at 35.4 percent among those living in Tokyo's densely populated 23 wards. In the Osaka and Nagoya areas, 15.2 percent felt an increase in interest in moving to other regions.

The survey also found 70.3 percent of child-raising respondents said they spend more time with their families than before the COVID-19 crisis. About a third, at 34.1 percent, said they improved how to share housework and child care burdens with their spouses.

"We now have an excellent opportunity to correct the overconcentration (of people and businesses) in Tokyo and accelerate work style reforms and digitization at once," economic revitalization minister Yasutoshi Nishimura told a press conference.

Relevant measures will be included in the government's upcoming economic and fiscal policy guidelines, he also said.

The survey was conducted online between May 25 and June 5. Valid responses came from 10,128 people.

JIJI Press