Books
The Third Kind of Time（第3の時間, Daisan no Jikan）began as an attempt to understand a paradox: how Denmark works some of the shortest hours in the developed world, yet remains one of its most competitive — and consistently happiest — societies. The answer, I found, was not purely economic. It lay in how Danes treat time — working efficiently enough to prosper in fewer hours, and using what remains in ways that feed their happiness.
Drawing on two decades in Japanese journalism and a decade of living in Denmark, the book weaves reporting with my own slow unlearning of a work-centered sense of worth. Released in December 2025, it quickly became a bestseller in Japan.
The book is currently available in Japanese, in print and as an audiobook, with a Traditional Chinese edition forthcoming. Foreign rights on submission through Susanna Lea Associates via Japan Uni Agency, Inc.
Praise for the book
"If you think you need to work 15-hour days to get ahead, think again. The Danes do things differently, and Yoko Inoue is the perfect guide to their radical and successful approach to life."
— Michael Booth, author of The Almost Nearly Perfect People
"This illuminating book offers both a challenge and an invitation: to rethink what it means to live well and work well. With clarity and compassion, Yoko Inoue reveals how Denmark—through balance, trust, and an appreciation of time—has managed to cultivate both economic success and personal flourishing. In an age when busyness is often mistaken for importance, this book reminds us that productivity and wellbeing are not opposites but allies. It is a deeply human exploration of time affluence—the true wealth that arises when we align achievement with meaning, and work with life. An inspiring, essential read for anyone seeking to build happier individuals, organizations, and societies."
— Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar, who taught Harvard's most popular course on happiness
In the media
Japan
Since its release in December 2025, the book has been covered across Japan's national press, including an interview in the Nikkei, a front-page column in the Asahi Shimbun and a feature in the Yomiuri Shimbun. My interview on the online channel of TBS, one of Japan's major television networks, has been viewed more than 270,000 times, and I have also appeared on popular business video channels such as NewsPicks and Kodansha's THKNKpod. The Royal Danish Embassy in Tokyo produced a short video series with me on Danish working life. I have also discussed the book on radio, on J-WAVE and Radio Nikkei, and it has been featured widely in business and lifestyle media, including Nikkei Woman, Courrier Japon and Works magazine, published by the Recruit Works Institute.
A full list of press coverage (in Japanese) is available here.
I have spoken about the book to members of Japan's parliament at the House of Councillors, the upper house of the Diet; at the Keidanren Kaikan, home of Japan's largest business federation; and at Nikkei's Gender Gap Conference in September 2026. I also give keynotes on Danish working life for major Japanese corporations.
Denmark
"First she was annoyed by the Danes. Then Yoko Inoue began to understand us."
In March 2026, Berlingske — Denmark's oldest national newspaper, founded in 1749 — ran a major feature on the book and my story.
I also contributed the chapter on Denmark to 「稼ぐ小国」の戦略 (The Strategy of Small but Wealthy Nations, Kobunsha, 2025) — a co-authored book examining how six small countries, each with fewer than ten million people and no major natural resources, built some of the world's highest standards of living. My chapter explores how Denmark generates its prosperity, and what a shrinking, resource-poor Japan might learn from it.