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24814.8% in 2019, which is much lower than that in many other countries17). The lower degree of flexi-bility at work might have been underlying the lower SEWB scores in women in the present study.SEWB is an active coping behavior that has adverse health effects for workers, although it is conventionally believed that active coping behav-iors mitigate the psychosomatic effects of stress in contrast to avoidance coping behaviors7, 8). SEWB might resemble psychological states such as work engagement and overcommitment, in terms of overwork. However, SEWB is a specific observable behavior that may mediate the effects of overload on health impairment7, 8). Thus, in addition to the occupational stressors and psychosocial modifiers related to the health effects on employees, which have been extensively studied in Japan18-21), it may be valuable for future studies to examine SEWB as a coping strategy for flexible working styles. Such studies will also verify the concurrent validity of J-SEWB scale by examining its relationships to the existing scales18-21), which could not be done due to insufficient preparation in the present study.The increased incidence of SEWB in the work-place may indicate that the design of flexible forms of work needs to be improved. In such cases, deter-minants of SEWB in relation to occupational stressors and modifiers, including gender, should be investigated to reveal how to improve them. The J-SEWB scale can be used to assess determi-nants as well as the effectiveness of interventions Table 4　 Sociodemographic variables significantly related to J-SEWB scores in 600 participants: Working hour system: Fixed Non-fixed Working hours/weekb: 30–39 40–49 50–59 60 or more*p < 0.01, **p < 0.001a Two-way analysis of variance using gender and each variable as factors (main effects).b Among participants who worked 40 hours or less, 40–49 hours, 50–59 hours, and 60 or more hours a week, 56 (27.3%), 98 (31.3%), 28 (45.2%), and 9 (45.0%) were working under a flexible working hour system (χ2 = 8.640, p < 0.05).Two-way analysis of variance J-SEWB scoresMeanSD39.644.816.015.639.240.646.656.016.015.415.317.9and may be helpful in health management of workers. A previous study proposed that long working hours may have a cultural background that is specific to Japan, such as an emphasis on signals that show commitment/loyalty to the company and one’s efforts for others, rather than results/achievements, groupism, hierarchical rela-tionships, and workload unrelated to core busi-ness22). An international comparative study on the SEWB that considers differences in workplace culture in future may provide valuable insight.The J-SEWB scale appears to be an effective tool for assessing SEWB related to autonomy and self-management in Japanese employees, with satisfactory reliability and construct validity.The authors thank Ms. Yukari Akizuki for her help translating the SEWB scale into Japanese. We thank Benjamin Knight, MSc., from Edanz (https://jp.edanz.com/ac) for editing a draft of this manu-script.This study was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant number 22K10534, 19H01763 and 20K20869.KY contributed to all aspects of the study, F-valuesaVariable11.55*Gender18.88**6.94**13.20**ConclusionsAcknowledgmentsFundingAuthor contributions