Abstract
This chapter focuses on “workation” in Japan. Japanese workation is not one of the digital nomad workstyle but expected to be a part of the revitalization of local industries such as entrepreneurship and tourism, as well as part of labour management and human resource development of companies. The questions addressed in this chapter are how the local accepts workation and how it relates to and impacts local economic and social design. The case study in this study was based mainly on in-depth interviews and participant observations at Nulab Inc. and Higashikawa Town conducted in January of 2020. This study revealed that workations stimulate the discovery and development of “secondary tourism resources” which is the sights and specialities for 1–2 weeks stay in the local, and is one of the motivating forces for companies and workers to participate in the locality’s social design.
Keywords
- Workation
- Teleworking
- Case study
- Tourism
- Japan
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
Buying options
Notes
- 1.
Workcation and workation can be spelled either way, but workation is often used in Japan. In this paper, which focuses on Japanese cases, we will use “workation” unless it is a proper noun.
References
Amano, H. (2018). Workation: Wakayamaken kara teiansuru atarasii hatarakikata to tihousousei no katati. Estrela, 291, 2–13.
Aroles, J., Granter, E., & de Vaujany, F. X. (2020). ‘Becoming mainstream’: The professionalisation and corporatisation of digital nomadism. New Technology, Work and Employment, 35(1), 114–129. https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12158.
Brown, B., & O’Hara, K. (2003). Place as a practical concern of mobile workers. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 35(9), 1565–1587. https://doi.org/10.1068/a34231.
Chayka, K. (2018, February 8). When you’re a ‘digital nomad,’ the world is your office. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/08/magazine/when-youre-a-digital-nomad-the-world-is-your-office.html
Ciolfi, L., & De Carvalho, A. F. P. (2014). Work practices, nomadicity and the mediational role of technology. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), 23(2), 119–136.
Cook, D. (2020). The freedom trap: digital nomads and the use of disciplining practices to manage work/leisure boundaries. Information Technology & Tourism, 22, 355–390. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40558-020-00172-4
Dal Fiore, F., Mokhtarian, P. L., Salomon, I., & Singer, M. E. (2014). “Nomads at last”? A set of perspectives on how mobile technology may affect travel. Journal of Transport Geography, 41, 97–106.
Hart, A. (2015, May 15). Living and working in paradise: The rise of the ‘digital nomad’. The Telegraph, 17. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/features/11597145/Living-and-working-in-paradise-the-rise-of-the-digital-nomad.html
Hemsley, J., Erickson, I., Jarrahi, M. H., & Karami, A. (2020). Digital nomads, coworking, and other expressions of mobile work on Twitter. First Monday, 25(3). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v25i3.10246.
Higashihara, Y. (2019). The possibilities of work vacation: Japan airlines’ initiatives. Tourism Culture, 43(3), 14–17.
Higashikawa Town. (2019). History of Higashikawa Town vol.3. https://town.higashikawa.hokkaido.jp/special/town-history/
Marcellin, F. (2014). Age of the digital nomad: The plan to abandon cities in favour of freelance freedom. Connected World Magazine, 1–21.
Matsushita, K. (2019). Mobile Media-jidai no Hatarakikata (Work style in Mobile Media Age). Tokyo: Keiso Shobo.
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. (2018). Guidelines for the promotion of sideline work. https://www.mhlw.go.jp/file/06-Seisakujouhou-11200000-Roudoukijunkyoku/0000192844.pdf
Müller, A. (2016). The digital nomad: Buzzword or research category? Transnational Social Review, 6(3), 344–348. https://doi.org/10.1080/21931674.2016.1229930.
Nash, C., Jarrahi, M. H., Sutherland, W., & Phillips, G. (2018). Digital nomads beyond the buzzword: Defining digital nomadic work and use of digital technologies. In G. Chowdhury, J. McLeod, V. Gillet & P. Willett (Eds.), Transforming digital worlds. iConference 2018. Lecture notes in computer science (Vol. 10766, pp. 207–217). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78105-1_25
Nelson, S. B., Jarrahi, M. H., & Thomson, L. (2017). Mobility of knowledge work and affordances of digital technologies. International Journal of Information Management, 37(2), 54–62.
Orel, M. (2019). Coworking environments and digital nomadism: Balancing work and leisure whilst on the move. World Leisure Journal, 61(3), 215–227. https://doi.org/10.1080/16078055.2019.1639275.
Persol Research and Consulting. (2020a). Emergency survey on the impact of the new coronavirus measures on telework in March [web site]. https://rc.persol-group.co.jp/news/202003230001.html
Persol Research and Consulting. (2020b). Emergency survey on the impact of the new coronavirus measures on telework in April [web site]. https://rc.persol-group.co.jp/news/202004170001.html
Prester, J., Cecez-Kecmanovic, D., & Schlagwein, D. (2019). Becoming a digital nomad: Identity emergence in the flow of practice. International Conference on Information Systems, 1–9. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336210364
Reichenberger, I. (2018). Digital nomads–a quest for holistic freedom in work and leisure. Annals of Leisure Research, 21(3), 364–380. https://doi.org/10.1080/11745398.2017.1358098.
Richards, G. (2015). The new global nomads: Youth travel in a globalizing world. Tourism Recreation Research, 40(3), 340–352. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2015.1075724.
Silverman, R. E. (2015, June 23). This summer, how about a workcation?. The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/this-summer-how-about-taking-a-workcation-1435072989
Sundararajan, A. (2016). The sharing economy: The end of employment and the rise of crowd-based capitalism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Thompson, B. Y. (2019). The digital nomad lifestyle: (remote) work/leisure balance, privilege, and constructed community. International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure, 2(1–2), 27–42. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41978-018-00030-y.
Wakayama Prefecture. (2020). Wakayama workation project [web site]. https://wave.pref.wakayama.lg.jp/020400/workation/index.html#section-contact
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Matsushita, K. (2021). Workations and Their Impact on the Local Area in Japan. In: Orel, M., Dvouletý, O., Ratten, V. (eds) The Flexible Workplace. Human Resource Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62167-4_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62167-4_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-62166-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-62167-4
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)