In 2005, the Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children (hereinafter, “the Next-Generation Act”) was enforced to support healthy development of children. The temporary legislation, originally valid until the end of March 2025, has been extended to the end of March 2035 with partial amendments. This article looks into this law and its amendments.
[1] Drawing up of an action plan, making revisions
The Next-Generation Act requires companies with 100 or more employees to draw up and submit an action plan for healthy development of children. Companies are also required to disclose the plan and promote employees’ understanding about the matter.
An action plan must include the following items to improve workplace environment for workers raising children and reexamine labor conditions to support diverse ways of working for all employees, whether they have children or not.
[Items to be included in the action plan]
1. Action plan period
2. Objectives
3. Measures to achieve the objectives and the periods to implement them
Since the situation surrounding workers raising children is different from company to company, specific details of an action plan is left to each company. Meanwhile, the amended Next-Generation Act requires companies to set numerical targets regarding the status of childcare leave usage (the percentage of male workers who took childcare leave) and working hours (full-time employees’ monthly overtime and holiday work, etc.)
[2] Understanding and analyzing of the company status
To make an action plan effective, it must include measures suited to the issues facing the company. For this reason, the amended act requires companies drawing up or revising an action plan to gain correct understanding about the usage of childcare leave and working hours. The first action plan made after the enforcement of the amended act should reflect the result of analysis of areas where improvements are needed.
[3] Expanded scope of companies required to disclose childcare leave usage data
Currently, companies with 1,000 or more employees are required to disclose data about the usage of childcare leave. With the amendment to the Childcare and Caregiver Leave Act, companies with 300 or more employees will become subject to this requirement from April 2025.
Since young people increasingly pay attention to the status of childcare leave usage when they choose companies, understanding the accurate situation and taking effective measures is also useful for companies’ recruiting activities.
The amended act is to be enforced on April 1, 2025. An action plan implemented or changed after this date must comply with the new rules. Since it may take time to understand the status in the company, please review the current action plan and start taking necessary measures early.
[Reference]
The Labour Ministry, the Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children
