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<title content-type="abstract-subheading">Purpose</title>
This study aims to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic affected telework initiatives in Japanese companies and investigate the factors that affect telework based on the technology, organization and environment (TOE) model, through the analysis of published documents.


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<title content-type="abstract-subheading">Design/methodology/approach</title>
Document analysis was adopted. Documents were collected from English news articles in the <italic>Nikkei Asian Review</italic> and <italic>Nikkei Asia</italic> which cover Japan's economy, industries and markets. The results of surveys by the Persol Research Institute and Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry were also provided to discuss factors promoting and hindering telework. Content analysis was adopted to analyse the documents.


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<title content-type="abstract-subheading">Findings</title>
COVID-19 had an unavoidable impact on the implementation of telework that the government had previously failed to instigate. Japanese listed companies tend to implement telework, whereas small- and medium-sized companies are struggling. The ratio of telework has been low even after the declaration of the state of emergency because there exist organizational, technological and environmental barriers to telework in Japan.


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<title content-type="abstract-subheading">Originality/value</title>
This study contributes to discussions on work style reform by focusing on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on telework. This research also gives new insight into operationalization of telework in organizations not only in Japan but also in other countries known for low rates of telework and inflexible work styles such as Korea.


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