With major revisions to the Childcare Leave Act taking effect in 2022, this article looks at the current status of childcare leave, including male workers’ use of the system.
[Rate of male employees taking childcare leave rose to 12.65% in fiscal 2020]
The Labor Ministry has recently released the result of Employment Equality Survey for 2020 (hereinafter, “the survey”). The ministry has been conducting such survey to understand the situation of employment management, focusing on equal treatment of male and female employees, work-family balance, etc. This article focuses on male workers’ childcare leave, one of the government’s priority areas.
[1] Rate of male employees’ use of childcare leave
The Japanese government is aiming to raise the ratio of working fathers who take childcare leave to 30% by 2025. Since the strategy was approved by the Cabinet on May 29, 2020, various efforts have been made to achieve this goal. According to the 2020 survey, the rate of applicable male employees who took childcare leave in fiscal 2020 was 12.65%, increasing 5.17 points from 7.48% in fiscal 2019. (Please see the chart below.) But the leave period of 28.33% of them was less than five days, indicating that men’s childcare leave is comparatively shorter than leave taken by their female counterparts.
[2] Short work hours for childcare
Companies are required by law to implement a system to shorten work hours for employees raising children up to three years of age. Asked how long their employees are allowed to use the system, the majority 55.7% of the companies said, “until their children turn three,” while 15% said, “until their children reach the elementary school age.” Companies who said, “until around the time when their children enter elementary school to start the third grade” accounted for 11.5%.
Companies are also obligated to limit unscheduled work by employees taking care of children up to age three. Asked about this rule, the majority 49.6% said their employees can use the system “until their children turn three years of age,” while 26.7% said, “until their children reach the elementary school age.” Meanwhile, 6.7% of the companies said their employees can use the system “after their children graduate from elementary school,” and 6.3% said, “until around the time when their children enter elementary school to start the third grade.”
The survey showed that many companies are striving to support their employees to balance work and parenting by setting more generous rules than legal requirements.
The amendments to the Childcare and Family Care Leave Act are slated to be enforced from April 2022. Taking this opportunity, companies should reexamine their rules on childcare and family care leave, identify issues and make revisions as needed.
(Reference)
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Basic Employment Equality Survey for Fiscal 2020
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/list/71-r02.html
The Cabinet Office
Outline of Falling Birthrate Countermeasures
https://www8.cao.go.jp/shoushi/shoushika/law/taikou_r02.html
