Japan Local Govts Working to Encourage Paternity Leave

Tokyo, Sept. 22 (Jiji Press)--More local governments in Japan are working to encourage their male employees to take paternity leave, aiming for all their workers to secure a good balance between work and family. Paternity leave has not taken root in the country due to concerns over decreases in income and disruptions to the work side of life. In August, the Yamanashi prefectural government introduced a new system allowing male employees to take care of children at home for at least three months. To mitigate concerns over drops in income, the prefectural government in central Japan allows its employees to use the system in conjunction with remote working and shortened work hours. A special allowance is paid to employees who fill in for workers on paternity leave. Extra points will be added to the personnel evaluations of those at managerial posts if their subordinates have taken paternity leave. Yamanashi is expected to see the first case of the combined use of the paternity leave system and remote working as early as this year. "We hope to create a culture in which the entire workplace can back people raising children," a senior prefectural official said. "At the same time, we want to create a pleasant work environment for all employees regardless of whether they have children." In 2021, the prefectural government of Saga, southwestern Japan, introduced a system encouraging its employees to take at least 14 days off work using its child care-related vacation and annual paid leave systems. The heads of departments with employees who fail to take at least 14 days off need to hand in a statement explaining why their subordinates are not taking time off. Such department chiefs are required to include in their statement whether they have taken time to urge subordinates to take time off from work, or whether they have reviewed work assignments. "This system is leaving people starting to become aware that taking (paternity leave) is a completely normal thing to do," a senior prefectural official said. The Saga prefectural government saw the proportion of male employees who take paternity leave of two weeks or more following the birth of their children reach 100 pct as of Sept. 7. On the other hand, some local government departments are struggling to raise the share of male employees taking paternity leave. In the northeastern city of Fukushima, where its mayor visits male municipal workers who have recently become parents to congratulate them and encourage them to take paternity leave, the proportion of those who took such leave topped 50 pct in the April-June quarter. At the city's fire department, which offers around-the-clock emergency services, however, no eligible workers took time off from work in the three-month period. Fire department workers were "reluctant to take paternity leave amid concerns that (their absence) will interfere with operations," a Fukushima personnel affairs official said. Excluding police and fire department staff, 34.5 pct of male local government employees across Japan took paternity leave in fiscal 2021, which ended in March last year. The Japanese government aims to boost the figure to 85 pct by calendar 2025. "Creating an environment that will make it easier for employees to take child care leave will help secure talented workers," said Tae Amano, head of a civic group that has been calling for a mandatory paternity leave system. Amano said supervisors should ask workers taking child care leave to feed back into the workplace ideas inspired by their experiences raising children as such leave serves as an opportunity to develop diverse perspectives. END