Japan uses drones to urge employees to go home and rest

Launched on December 7, the 'T-Friend' drone is tasked with urging employees who work late to go home.

Drones circle the office and send out a 'closed door' signal to any employees still working overtime.

"T-Friend" is set to play the song "Auld Lang Syne", a Scottish song used in Japan to announce when stores are about to close.

Developed by Blue Innovation, office security company Taisei and telecom operator NTT East, the drone comes with a camera, allowing for remote monitoring. It can operate in places without GPS and is programmed to fly a route and return on its own.

The paths of these planes can be programmed.

T-Friend is said to be a tool to try to curb the Japanese obsession with deadline pressure that has killed thousands.

"You can't really work when the drone can come at any time and play Auld Lang Syne with a buzz," Taisei president Norihiro Kato told Japan Today. Developers are also planning to integrate facial recognition technology into the drone to see who is still working after hours and identify any illegal intruders.

In Japan, more and more people commit suicide due to work pressure.

Many Japanese companies now ban employees from overworking, in an effort to curb the country’s rising suicide rate due to work-related stress. Dentsu, which lost a 24-year-old advertising employee to suicide in December 2015, implemented a “lights out, no work” policy after 10 p.m. in October 2016. Other companies in Japan have banned work hours after 7 p.m. and 8 p.m., the Japan Times notes.

According to Ngoisao.net