Deregulation – Wellness: Asian Opportunities

J-Wellness 2020

Published August 2020; Available on Amazon

Wellness is about helping people to live well.

2020 was anticipated to be a joyous celebration of athletic prowess at the Tokyo Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games, and a discovery by the world of Japan’s Wellness-related activities (J-Wellness) that underpin the world’s longest national life expectancy.

Instead, in the face of the ongoing global pandemic and devastated economies, people are in survival mode, looking to Wellness to boost their immune systems as their first line of defence against the “Shingata Coronavirus”, the new-form coronavirus as the Japanese call it.

J-Wellness is both ancient traditions and pro-active modern practices. Zen meditation for Mental Wellness, the tea ceremony for the antioxidants-rich green tea (antioxidants protect the body against cellular damage and disease), and onsen (hot springs for quiet contemplation of nature with hydrotherapy benefits and seasonal, local cuisine fine dinners), are not part of the daily routine of the average Japanese. However, community awareness, drinking green tea and bathing are everyday practices. Traditional nutritionally balanced Japanese cuisine lives on in daily bento boxes for lunch eaten at schools and at office desks. The past intermingles with the present.

Government programs have been striving to reduce lifestyle diseases associated with sedentary and stressful living for decades. This has involved specific health and wellness targets. For example, to reduce obesity, the Metabo Law, 2008, set maximum waist measurements at 33.5 inches for men and 35.4 inches for women, with education support given to those who exceeded these levels. In addition, local governments and companies are potentially liable to fines. Currently, 26% of Japan’s population aged 15 or older are overweight, defined as having a BMI of 25 or more; it is 71% in the United States, 64% in the U.K.

Since we believe that Japan’s relatively low “Shingata Coronavirus” related death rate relative to other nations importantly reflects the good life-style behaviours of J-Wellness, our message has become more urgent. The global environment is now far grimmer, but the value of J-Wellness to the world has become even more important.

J-Wellness & Workations

Imagine waking to the sounds of nature, opening the curtains to a view of trees, bathing in a hot spring bath, eating a nutritionally balanced prepared breakfast, and after a one hour walk through the woods, doing a few hours of work. Imagine the many wellness benefits.

What is a Workation? What are its benefits? Will Workations become popular in Japan?

The merging of work and vacation to form the Workation (sometimes spelt Workcation) concept, probably sounds very unattractive to people outside Japan. The image is probably of the further (beyond the rarely off smartphone) intrusion of work pressures into vacation time. Writing a project proposal, working on a research report, attending Zoom conferences, through high-speed data links does not sound like a relaxing, stimulating holiday experience.

The Japanese have a different perspective, that begins with their relative lack of vacation time taken. In terms of paid vacation days used, Japan is the lowest with the USA at 10 days, just one third Germany’s 30 days, less than half of the rest of Europe and substantially beneath the 14 paid vacation days used in Canada and the 15 days used in South Korea.

Government policy support for workations has broadened to cover the following:

The promotion of the taking of more vacations, to improve people’s quality of life
Fostering a more flexible work style, incorporating the office, home and hotel/resorts (via workations). The government has been promoting teleworking (remote working) for some years. Workations further supports the push for deregulation in standard workplace practices
Promoting tourism: during a government tourism strategy meeting in July 2020 (then Chief Cabinet Secretary, now Prime Minister) Suga made headlines by mentioning workations as a policy that would support a revival of activity. The Ministry of the Environment, which has responsibility for the onsen industry, has begun to promote workations as we way to boost visitors to onsens. The government has announced financial support for hotels in onsen towns to install high-speed Wi-Fi connections. The idea is for companies to essentially adopt towns and to use them as satellite offices throughout the year. The hope is that regional areas outside Japan’s main urban areas will benefit particularly.

Deregulation drives innovative business models

Deregulation and the ensuing market opportunities leads us to expect “Workation” as a concept to evolve rapidly into an implemented reality. The private sector is responding rapidly to the policy support from the government. We at Conceptasia are advising hospitality industry clients on workation programs, to leverage their high-speed data capabilities and diverse facilities. Please contact Conceptasia for more.

For data and more details, please see the full 6-page article:

https://wellnessasianopportunities.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/J-Wellness-Workations-October-2020.pdf