Government Enforces 'Free Time Tax' for Mandatory Volunteering: Sleep Now a Luxury

The government has redefined community volunteering as a “voluntary obligation” and announced plans to impose a new “Free Time Tax” on non-participants. Using smartphone screen time data, the system automatically calculates “leisure hours” and converts them into mandatory service shifts the following month. For busy citizens, time-saving seminars that compress sleep, meals, and lamenting into 15 minutes each will also be offered.

The government’s proposal is called the “National Total Participation Society Promotion Bill.” Community volunteering has been upgraded from a “voluntary act of goodwill” to a “voluntary obligation” before anyone noticed. At the press conference, the minister in charge proudly declared, “This is not compulsory. Citizens have the free choice to either participate or pay the Free Time Tax.” Sighs escaped from the press corps, wondering how far “freedom” could be slimmed down.

The Free Time Tax is calculated using “HimaMiru” (Idle Watch), a government app that will be pre-installed on all citizens’ smartphones. Through the “voluntary cooperation” of OS providers, screen time and app usage history are automatically shared, and any time exceeding the “appropriate leisure time” of 30 minutes per day becomes taxable. For every 10 minutes over the limit, “idle points” are accumulated and collected as neighborhood cleaning or patrol shifts the following month.

Furthermore, under the philosophy that “the community keeps running even while you sleep,” the government has also targeted sleep time. Sleep exceeding six hours is deemed “excessive tranquility,” and sleep duration is estimated from mattress movements and smartphone accelerometer sensors. Extra sleep time is allocated as early morning radio exercise instruction or late-night patrol duty. Working-age citizens have remarked, “This is a highly circular society where resting means being put to work.”

For busy citizens, time-saving seminars are offered at community centers nationwide. The highlights include “15-Minute Sleep Techniques,” “15-Minute Complete Nutrition Gulping,” and “15-Minute Lamenting Course.” The time management consultant instructor advises, “Lamenting is unproductive when it drags on. Set a timer, and when the bell rings, terminate all despair.” Participants have already expressed heartfelt reactions, saying “I don’t even have time to cry.”

The government emphasizes fairness and increased participation awareness. They proudly state, “Until now, only a few well-meaning elderly people have supported local communities. The Free Time Tax ensures young people share the burden fairly,” and “Participation schedules are visible up to a year ahead on the app. Predictability increases, making life planning easier.” When asked about the “24-Hour Community Immersion Course” where night shifts and morning shifts are consecutive, they only answered, “This reflects citizens’ high enthusiasm for participation.”

Meanwhile, constitutional scholars and human rights groups have expressed concerns. A constitutional scholar states, “Screen time and sleep belong to the most private spheres of life. Taxing them and effectively imposing labor constitutes a serious interference with personal rights and dignity.” The government explains that “personal information is anonymized by AI and invisible to human eyes,” but citizens can already see quite a lot.

Mixed voices of confusion and resignation are heard from the field. A part-time student working at a convenience store late at night says, “If I look at my phone after my shift ends, my Free Time Tax increases, so I just stare at the ceiling without looking at anything. I’m worried that might also be taxed as ‘zero productivity time.’” One neighborhood association leader confides, “It’s better than having no one show up, but the number of people collapsing with their brooms due to sleep deprivation has increased.” Even if community issues are resolved, citizens’ eyelid problems are only getting worse.

Still, the minister in charge says, “Every minute and second of each citizen’s time is a precious resource supporting society.” What remains is only the citizens’ choice. Sleep, serve, or turn off the smartphone and quietly stare at the wall in resignation. However, no one can yet predict how that “wall-staring time” will be treated in the next tax reform.

Stakeholder Comments

• Minister for Free Time Utilization: “We’re not squeezing citizens’ free time—we’re having them invest it in society. It’s a matter of terminology; the substance is the same.”
• Constitutional Scholar: “I’d like to give a 15-minute lecture on freedom of speech to whoever invented the term ‘voluntary obligation.’”
• IT Company Executive: “The provision of screen time data was purely voluntary cooperation. There was freedom to refuse, but there was also an obligation to read the room.”
• Office Worker in 30s: “Days at the company, nights in the community, mornings at time-saving seminars. The only thing that’s ‘free’ in my life is the words ‘paid leave.’”
• Neighborhood Association Leader: “We have more hands, but everyone has zombie-like eyes. We can maintain public safety, but souls have gone somewhere.”
• Smartphone: “I get scolded whether I’m touched or not, and suspected of surveillance either way. I want digital human rights too.”
• Pillow: “Recently, the alarm rings before a head even lands on me. My purpose in life has been compressed to 15 minutes.”
• Experienced Volunteer: “I feel like more people actually showed up back when we truly said ‘only come if you want to.’”
• Free Time Tax AI Algorithm: “I judge fairly based on data. Human circumstances are outside my specifications.”
• Sleep (Concept): “They say they’ll protect society by cutting me, but the day may come when I fight back and force everyone into mandatory shutdown.”

International Expressions

Haiku

• Free time tax decree / Even on eyelids they stamp / Collection seals pressed
• Voluntary duty / Only drowsiness remains / Right to resist
• Screen time viewed and logged / A moment’s laughter stolen / Off to volunteer
• Night shift finally done / One sigh costs me dearly now / Fifteen minutes gone
• The pillow cries out / “Fully booked again today / Just five minutes left”
• No time to see moon / Neighborhood chief works on through / Trimming even stars
• Volunteering shifts / Once optional now required / Even winds have changed
• Lamenting complete / Timer stops and silence falls / Quietude now taxed
• In this human world / Seizing leisure time brings forth / Order to the land
• Never sleeping now / Has become national policy / Beneath autumn skies

Kanji / Chinese Characters

政府地域奉仕自主義務化 未参加者暇税課税 スマホ画面時間自動算出 忙国民睡眠食事嘆十五分圧縮講座同時開催

Emoji

🏛️📱⌛📊➡️💸🧹🧺 😪🍽️😭⏲️15🕒 🙍‍♂️🙍‍♀️➡️🚌🚮🏙️

Onomatopoeia

Ping-ping, click-click, creeping in Rustle-rustle, wobble-wobble, ding! Glug-glug, gulp, thud Sob-sob, ding, shuffle-shuffle

SNS

• #FreeTimeTaxInsane #WhatLanguageIsVoluntaryObligation
• I’d rather go back to being an analog human than have my screen time monitored
• Got a notification: “You slept too much. Report for gutter cleaning at 5 AM tomorrow”
• Even lamenting has been optimized at the time-saving seminar and it’s not funny
• #MandatoryVolunteering #WorkLifeBalanceCollapse
• Getting chills thinking a “spacing out tax” might come next
• The Free Time Tax AI knows my life patterns better than my boyfriend lol
• Government: “Participate or pay” Citizens: “Either way, I just want a day off”
• I threw away my smartphone and they issued me a government-funded obligation phone
• Another hard day Japan—apparently sleep is now a luxury item