Amid COVID-19 Fears, Many Japanese Want to Avoid Company Year-End Parties

A survey on how the COVID-19 pandemic will affect year-end parties in Japan found that 24.6% of respondents did not want and 36.9% did not really want to attend a work-related year-end party. This means that over 60% of the respondents in the survey by Japan Food Delivery, which supplies food to corporate customers, were not eager to take part. Meanwhile, those who either wanted or somewhat wanted to attend totaled 38.5%.

The survey was conducted for 852 male and female employees (aged 20 or older) from October 7 to 13. The most common reason cited for not wanting to take part in a year-end party, mentioned by 88.6% of respondents, was the “concern about COVID-19 infection,” followed by those who “do not want to spend time after work for workplace events,” at 30.0%, and those who said such parties are “exhausting, so they cannot enjoy them,” at 27.1%.

Among the respondents, 54.1% said that the risks of infection from attending a year-end party were “high,” while 40.8% said they were “relatively high,” so that well over 90% expressed concerns regarding the safety of such an event.

The rental-space broker Spacemarket conducted its own year-end party survey in late October targeting 501 employees from their twenties to fifties. It found that 33.3% “prefer” and 36.7% “somewhat prefer” a face-to-face party, whereas 17.6% “prefer” and 12.4% “somewhat prefer” an online party.

As for the suitable number of people for a year-end party, 5.6% said “2 to 3 people,” 25.0% said “4 to 5,” and 47.3% said “5 to 10,” so that nearly 80% of the respondents preferred a party with 10 people or fewer. Among the 377 respondents who said they took part in a year-end party in 2019, 71.1% were parties with 11 or more participants.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)