Telework means not being confined to city-life

The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered a rethink among millennials across the world, especially among those married with children and craving more space who now want to move away from busy densely-populated metropolitan city centres to quieter suburban regions steeped in nature.

The catalyst for this trend is the growth of telework, which has given "out of office" messages a new meaning as white-collar workers now can clock in anywhere with an Internet connection.

This has been particularly apparent in Japan, which is no longer a productivity laggard. Large corporations like public relations giant Dentsu, tech company Fujitsu, and telecommunications firm NTT are downsizing while other firms are making telework, if not hybrid work, a norm.

The term 'datsu Tokyo' (escape Tokyo) has been coined from this trend, which has led to a real estate boom in areas such as the coastal beach-side city of Kamakura to the mountainous holiday resort town of Karuizawa.

Among those who have "escaped" is Mr Apisit Toompakdee, the 37-year-old co-founder of real estate platform Villa.co, who moved to Karuizawa in May with his wife Ayumi Aoki, 41, and their two boys Shin, three, and Ryo, one.

They have not returned to Tokyo since they traded a 48 sq m apartment in the neighbourhood of Hiroo in the capital - which cost 235,000 yen (S$2,825) a month including parking space - for a 90 sq m apartment in Karuizawa that cost 190,000 yen a month with free parking. "We get double the space at a cheaper rate," Mr Toompakdee quipped. "With two kids, we definitely need a larger space. I also get to spend more time with my children which, as a young father, is my priority."

There were 37,673 fewer residents in Tokyo last month compared to the same month last year. It was the eighth straight month of a year-on-year decline. But Karuizawa, which is an hour and 10 minutes from Tokyo by the shinkansen or bullet train, has benefited with an increasing number of residents and households.

Official data show that there were 8,810 households in Karuizawa in October 2019, with 19,234 residents. As at last month, there were 9,082 households with 19,783 residents.

The influx of new arrivals to Tokyo has long outpaced its attrition levels - whether due to death or departure - raising concerns of an over-concentration in the capital as the rest of Japan hollows out.

Yet Covid-19 has triggered a reversal of this trend. Even the national government, which has long waved the banner of "rural revitalisation", has jumped on the bandwagon by sweetening the deal with grants and subsidies for individuals and companies that move out of Tokyo.

Two clear trends have since emerged. One, employees of progressive firms that embrace telework have the flexibility to choose where they live, drawing Tokyo wages even as they live in suburban regions.

Two, many companies are either setting up satellite offices or moving their headquarter operations out of Tokyo.

Research firm Teikoku Databank found that 186 firms moved out of the capital in the first six months of this year, the most since 2011 when the March 11, 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster hit too close to the capital region for comfort.

Employees of these companies would, in turn, move house as well.

While they are renting, Mr Apisit and his family, which has taken the Aoki surname, are not ruling out living on their own property in Karuizawa in future.

Beaming as she watches Shin play with a set of Lego blocks, Ms Aoki told The Straits Times that the family is enjoying the fresh air and produce in their new hometown. "I can spend an hour at the local supermarket shopping for groceries," she added, noting the abundance of parks and nature for the family to visit every weekend.

Her husband now works remotely full time, though he has a scheduled trip to Tokyo this month for a work conference.

"Our apartment in Tokyo was getting a little too small for our family, and we wanted a change of environment. We used to spend our weekends in parks like Yoyogi Park, but it was very crowded," Mr Apisit said.

He admitted to a first-world concern: Will he be able to get used to a slower pace of life, foregoing big city conveniences like Muji and electronic stores nearby?

But he has since come to realise that with Amazon offering next-day delivery, life has not changed for the most part as he now does most of his shopping online.

The trend to move towards telework shows no sign of slowing down in Japan. A survey by the Japan Productivity Centre this month showed that 22 per cent of people telework for more than one day a week. This was up two points from the last survey in July, despite the country having exited prolonged Covid-19 state of emergency measures.

Clearly with an eye on such market trends and potential growth, Mr Anli Tan, 50, director of EtonHouse Japan, launched a full-time pre-school in Karuizawa in October catering to children aged three to six. This followed an after-school engagement programme launched last year for elementary school children from seven to 12.

Children learn in natural surroundings at the school, building tree houses, climbing trees, and picking up survival skills under the watchful eyes of the teachers.

"We found that children are more calm in nature and with this calmness, they can focus more, and the learning comes with playing," Mr Tan said.

The school's launch was a big deal in the sleepy town, which is part of Nagano prefecture. Not only did it make front-page headlines in local newspapers, Nagano Governor Shuichi Abe is scheduled to make a visit this month.

"In Japan, we are seeing a growing community of young families moving from Tokyo to Karuizawa amidst the increasing prevalence of telework arrangements," said Mr Fabian Tan, regional group director for North-east Asia and Oceania at Enterprise Singapore (ESG).

"With ESG's support, EtonHouse Japan has tapped on this social trend to expand the coverage of its pre-school services from its current international pre-school in downtown Tokyo to a new campus in Karuizawa, so as to serve the growing demand."

Some people in Thailand's congested capital have also caught the telework bug, allowing them to work away from Bangkok.

Ms Suwida Thosritha, 30, now holds two full-time jobs that allow her to work from home. This, in turn, has allowed her to purchase a 125 sq m townhouse in Samut Prakan, which is about a half-hour drive from Bangkok.

Ms Suwida, who works as a sales marketing manager by day and for a travel agency by night, bought the home in September. Before owning her own home, she was spending about 6,500 baht (S$265) a month renting a 30 sq m condominium in Bangkok.

She decided to take the plunge and bought the 2.79 million baht home - replete with a backyard and located near a lake - because she is earning about 70,000 baht a month, much more than many of her peers.

"I decided that I had enough of the city, and with this place, I would have more space, privacy and fresh air," she told The Straits Times.

Ms Suwida took out a 110 per cent bank loan with a 30-year repayment plan to buy the house. She now pays about 18,000 baht a month to finance the loan.

"Working from home was a big part of the decision to move. I did worry about the heavy responsibility, but I assessed my finances and felt comfortable with the decision," she said.

But there were downsides to the decision to hold two jobs and base herself away from central Bangkok, she added.

"I used to go out every Friday and spend time with friends and colleagues after work. Now I'm always at home, I love my home and my pet chihuahua. But my life is not as fun as before," she said.

But this is not an issue for venture capitalist Anri Samata, 37, and his wife Naoko, 38, who is a director at an e-commerce platform, in Karuizawa.

The Samatas, who have three children aged seven, two and one, took the plunge and bought a 2,100 sq m vacation home - including a large garden and an adjacent plot of land which they intend to refurbish into a guesthouse - in Karuizawa in February.

They now shuttle between Tokyo, where they live in a high-rise apartment, and Karuizawa on weekends and during school holidays for their eldest son, in which case they work from their vacation home.

"We work remotely most of the time, and it really does not matter where we are," Mr Samata said, adding that a permanent move may be on the cards once their son is enrolled in a good elementary school.

"There is really nothing that I am troubled about with being in Karuizawa," he said.

"We do not drive, but we have found that it is a myth that a car is necessary in a rural area. We are at home all the time, and we rely on taxis when we go out and on delivery for what we need. Most importantly, we are in a tight-knit community of close friends," he said.