More than 80% of major firms saw male employees take childcare leave of less than three months over the past year while female employees got longer leave times, a recent Kyodo News survey showed, underscoring the dominant role women continue to play in child-rearing in Japan.
In the survey that covered 113 companies between November and December, around half of them reported in their securities filings that at least 80% of their male employees took paternity leave, regardless of the length.
But on the duration of such leave taken, the largest group of 47% said the average length per child was “one month to less than three months,” followed by 25% who said “two weeks to less than one month.”
About 13% said the leave averaged “five days to less than two weeks,” 4% answered “three months to less than six months,” while 2% said “less than five days.”
In contrast, female workers took much longer leave times, with 51% of the surveyed companies seeing them take an average leave of “12 months to less than 18 months,” and 27% standing at “six months to less than 12 months.”
About 8% said the leave lasted “18 months or more,” while 4% said it was “less than six months.”
Asked about the challenges female employees face after taking longer childcare leave than males, with multiple answers allowed, 59% of the firms cited lagging career advancement, 30% said restrictions in work hours and 19% said delays in pay rise.
In Japan, a worker can, in principle, take childcare leave until the child reaches one year of age, and it can be extended until the child turns two years old depending on the situation. Separately, a father can take up to four weeks of leave within eight weeks after the child’s birth.
Since April last year, companies with more than 1,000 employees have been obliged to disclose once a year the percentage of male employees who took childcare leave.
Experts say paternity leave is important in equalising the burden of household chores and child-rearing between couples as well as in helping women to continue working and motivating them to have more children in Japan, which is struggling with a rapidly declining birthrate and shrinking population.
“Women’s careers are affected if they are absent from work for a long time,” said Toshiyuki Tanaka, an associate professor at Otsuma Women’s University with expertise on gender issues.
“It is preferrable that parents take their leaves in a way that it won’t only be women who take the longer one,” he said.
Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance, a property insurance subsidiary of Tokio Marine Holdings, said the percentage of male workers who took childcare leave was 100% in fiscal 2022, but the average length was less than five days.
“We will strive to ensure that all our employees can take their leave for as long as they need,” the company said, adding that more workers are taking leave of five days or longer in the current fiscal year. – the Japan Times
