Caption: Aimed at awakening sluggish consumer sentiment, ‘Premium Fridays’ begin today (from February 23, 2017). Screencap from ANN official news channel.

Japanese workers have been slow to embrace a new government initiative called “Premium Friday” that encourages people to work less and spend more money.

“Premium Friday” would allow workers to quit working at 3 p.m. on the last Friday of every month, and then go out and shop, take in a movie or a museum exhibit, or have dinner and drinks with friends and family. If employees across Japan participate in Premium Fridays it's estimated private consumption in Japan could rise by about ¥124 billion (approximately US$1.1 billion) each month.

But the first Premium Friday on February 24 has been declared a bust, with less than 4 percent of Japanese workers taking part. The main reason seems to be many Japanese employees are too busy to leave early.

プレミアムフライデー、実際に早く帰った人は3.7%　すでに死語領域にhttps://t.co/TTonaUDuqw

— 岡三マン (@okasanman) March 3, 2017

[According to this article], just 3.7% of workers left work early on Premium Friday (on February 24, 2017). The initiative appears to be dead on arrival.

Premium Friday was intended to address two problems in Japan: sluggish consumer spending and what is perceived to be a culture of overwork. Generally speaking, consumer spending in Japan has remained sluggish for more than 20 years, especially in the decade since the Great Recession.

And despite Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) statistics that show Japanese workers work slightly fewer average hours per year than their counterparts in other countries, there is the perception that working hours are too long in Japan, and something must be done.

hours worked per worker according to @OECD_Stat

Some interesting figures:
Mexico 2246
Greece 2042
OECD 1766
Germany 1371 pic.twitter.com/0P0wYO3a0E

— DimitrisMakrystathis (@makrystath) January 9, 2017

Blogger Nyokike, writing on Japanese curation site Naver Matome, has collected a variety of reactions to Premium Friday. The biggest problem with it? No one has the time to leave work early.

As one Twitter user sarcastically noted:

プレミアムフライデーの反対語は金曜労働ショー

— プレミアムさわでぃ@かいしゃちほー (@sawadybomb) February 23, 2017

The opposite of “Premium Friday” would be “Road Show Friday.”

“Road Show Friday” (kin'yo rodosho, 金曜労働ショー) is a play on a popular Friday night prime time movie programme on television and the Japanese word for “labor”, rodo (労働).

Another Twitter user, highlighting the results of a poll published in a newspaper, also noted that workload was one of the biggest obstacles to adopting Premium Friday:

実際にプレミアムフライデー利用した人は3.7%。
帰れなかった人の理由は、仕事が終わらなかった88.4%。
で、貴重な3.7%の人の退社後の行動は、自宅で過ごした41.8%。
…何がしたいの？ pic.twitter.com/lRbQNtXn4U

— NOWAR (@666fusei) March 3, 2017

Just 3.7% of survey respondents said they participated in Premium Friday. Reasons for not leaving early were “I still had work to do” (88.4%). Of the 3.7% of people who did leave work early, 41.8% said they spent time at home.

Japanese employers also have not bought into Premium Friday. A survey in February found that 5.8 percent of companies with 1,000 or more employees had adopted Premium Friday, while just 2.4 percent of companies with less than 100 employees had decided to participate.

One Twitter user noted that, despite it being early evening on Premium Friday, the lights were still on at Dentsu, one of Japan's most influential white-collar employers.

電通～プレミアム・フライデー～ pic.twitter.com/tdQeyh91qU

— shichi (@shichichaos) February 24, 2017

Premium Friday at Dentsu.

Japan's increasingly precarious labor market may also prevent adoption of Premium Friday. While there currently is a labor shortage in Japan—there are 143 jobs for every 100 job seekers in Japan—the quality of work in Japan is low. Like in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, wages are low and many positions are part-time or on a contract, rather than salaried, basis.

So, marginalized contract workers may have the flexibility to take advantage of Premium Friday, but may not have the financial power to help the government boost consumer spending targets.

One Twitter user wryly summarized the dilemma:

政府「プレミアムフライデー導入する」

社員「3時に退社できる！」

飲食店「プレフラ限定ビール半額！」

97%の企業「うちは導入しない」

社員「ファッ！？」

ぼく(無職)「くぅ〜ww働かずに飲む半額ビールうんめぇ〜ww」

結論:プレミアムフライデーで得するのはニートだけ

— 中退くん (@chuutaikun) February 24, 2017

Government: “We are going to introduce Premium Friday.”

Employees: “We can quit at 3 p.m.!”

Restaurants: “Half-price for ‘limited edition’ Premium Friday beer!”

97% of companies: “We are not going to implement Premium Friday.”

Employees: “Wha – ?”

Me (unemployed): “Aahh, since I'm not working this half-price beer tastes great!”

Conclusion: Only NEETS (those Not in Education, Employment, or Training) get Premium Fridays.