Why Japan wants more men to take paternity leave

Japan is trying to get its husbands and fathers more involved.

The country has ordered companies with over 100 employees to set and disclose paternity targets from next year.

The development comes in the backdrop of the country witnessing a record population decline in 2023 as it struggles with a low birth rate and an ageing populace.

Japan last year also witnessed a massive demographic change after data showed that 1 out of every 10 people is now aged 80 or above.

But what do we know about the plan?

Let’s take a closer look:

According to SCMP,  the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare will put in a bill to parliament.

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The bill will cover around 50,000 firms in Japan.

According to BorneoBulletin.com, the bill will amend the “Measures to Support Raising Children of the Next Generation” law.

A survey of the financial year 2022 showed just 17.1 per cent of men in Japan used paternity leave.

This is a massive increase from 2012 when that number stood at a meagre 1.9 per cent, as per the website.

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However, that pales in comparison to 80.2 per cent of women using maternity leave.

That government wants at least 50 per cent of men to avail maternity leave by 2025.

The survey of 1,000 male workers revealed that 620 men have never availed the leave.

Of these,  39.9 per cent cited worries about reduced income.

Another 22.5 per cent cited difficulties in their work environment or because their firms or bosses ’lacked understanding of such leave'.

In 2021, 51.5 per cent of male employees took less than two weeks off.

Around 95 per cent of women took six or more months leave.

Sources told the newspaper companies with less than 100 employees will be set targets but will not be mandated to meet them.

The plan will also include targets about workers doing overtime.

The companies have been told to submit their plans to to the ministry’s labour bureaus.

They will be then made public, sources added.

The ministry can issue recommendations for companies who do not reveal the targets.

According to Japan Times, firms with over 1,000 companies have been mandated to reveal information about how many men took paternity leave since April 2023.

Sources told the newspaper the government will also submit another bill to widen the scope of the disclosure, starting April 2025, to companies that have over 300 employees.

The number of dual income homes in Japan more than twice outnumber those with stay-at-home mothers more, as per BorneoBulletin.com.

Japan is struggling to gets its men to take paternity leave despite the generous provisions that already exist.

According to Bloomberg, Japan ranks second among nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) when it comes to childcare leave.

It allows 52 weeks of leave, while the OECD nations, on average, allow just 10.4 days of leave.

According to The Straits Times, fathers are also allowed four weeks of paternity leave within eight weeks of their child’s birth.

They are also allowed childcare leave until the infant turns one.

All the while they are paid a lowered salary that is exempt from tax.

Companies are also mandated to allow employees with young children – under the age of three – to work fewer hours.

The Japanese business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun said the government wants to help women advance their careers and fix the declining birth rate.

According to Tapei Times, Japanese women spend more than five times the amount of time that men do on house work and childcare.

Those couples with one child where the husband offers no help, just a third have a second child.

However, that number shoots up to over 80 per cent when husbands do more than six hours of housework and childcare per week.

Those figures suggest that resolving Japan’s lack of gender balance in work and care provision might hold the key to solving the country’s population crisis.

Men in Japan say they are reticent to take leave due to the possible impact on their lives.

But those who take it say they have had a positive experience.

Kazuki Matsuyama, a father of two, told The Straits Times: “As my wife’s sleep and mental health suffered, I, too, was affected as I was caught between work and family. It seemed like my family could fall apart.”

“The experience and precious memories will last a lifetime.”

Human resources team manager Hideki Sugiyama told the newspaper he is planning to take 200 days of childcare leave.

“I thought I was doing a lot for my family before, but I realise I wasn’t doing enough,” he said. “There is also a limit to what I can learn and experience, if I took only one or two months of childcare leave.”

Shohei Ikeda, 33, has two children.

He said he was initially wary about taking time off when his first boy was born.

“I was wondering if everyone would hate me,” he said. “But if not for the company’s support, my wife would have been solely responsible for childcare and housework, and her well-being would have deteriorated significantly.”

“Children are also sensitive to their parents’ fatigue, and it is painful to think of having your child worry. I don’t think I can perform at my 100 per cent best if I feel a sense of guilt to my family.”

Things are slowly changing.

Akiko Matsumoto, an assistant manager at Hitachi’s diversity and inclusion division. told Tapei Times, “Employees have started to feel the change in society and corporate attitudes and have begun to feel that it’s OK to take paternity leave.”

Population problems

Japan’s population shrank with a record loss of 831,872 in 2023, as per preliminary data released by country’s health ministry on Tuesday.

According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan, the number of newborns in Japan fell to a record low, down by 5.1 per cent to 758,631 in the reporting period, Xinhua news agency reported.

The figure marked the eighth straight year of decline and has remained below the 800,000 mark since 2022.

Japan last year witnessed its population decline in all its 47 prefectures for the first time.

The population of Japanese nationals fell by about 800,000 people, or 0.65 per cent to 122.4 million in 2022 from the previous year, falling for a 14th straight year

Japan’s total population was 125.41 million, down just over half a million people from a year earlier.

After peaking in 2008, Japan’s population has since shrunk steadily due to a declining birthrate.

The country witnessed a record low of 771,801 births in 2022.

The population declined 0.43 per cent in that year, while it declined .06 per cent in 2021.

Its birthrate is just 1.3 children per woman – which is .8 children below the level required keep its current population stable.

Worse, its population is projected to decline to to just 86.7 million by 2060.

Japan now has the highest proportion of people aged 65 or older with the group accounting for 29.1 per cent of the population.

That is slated to increase to 34.8 per cent by 2040, according to the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.

‘Cannot waste any time’

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has set tackling the declining births as one of his top policy goals and pledged to secure annual funding of about $25.2 billion over the next three years for a new child care package, which includes child birth and rearing allowances and increased subsidies for higher education.

Kishida last year said, “We cannot waste any time on the policies for children and childrearing support. We must establish a children-first economic society and turn around the birthrate.”

“Japan is standing on the verge of whether we can continue to function as a society,” he added.

But experts say the proposed low-birth measures are mostly additional funding for existing ones and don’t address underlying problems.

They say government subsidies still tend to target parents who already have children rather than removing difficulties that are discouraging young people from starting families.

They also say that Japan’s conservative government needs to do more to raise salaries, improve working conditions and make society more inclusive for minorities and those with non-Japanese roots to attract foreign workers to move to Japan and stay.

With inputs from agencies