JAPAN
The Japanese Government wants more male Public Servants to take childcare leave from 2020, sources within the National Personnel Authority say.
The sources said the introduction of measures to evaluate managers’ performance based partly on how many subordinates take such leave was also under consideration.
The Government has been pushing for gender equality and empowerment of women by promoting a mindset tolerant of paternity leave in the public and private sectors.
Its latest measures, which are expected to be officially announced before the end of the year, are designed to push this further within Government Departments.
According to the National Personnel Authority, only 1,350 – or 21.6 per cent – of male Government staff in regular full-time service and eligible for paternity leave, took advantage of it in 2018.
While that represented a 3.5 per cent rise from the previous year and was the highest level since 1992, when the system was introduced, it fell far short of the 99.5 per cent rate among women.
Of the men working in Municipal Government offices and entitled to paternity leave, only 4.4 per cent took it in 2017 – up 0.8 percentage points on the previous year.
It is unusual for men to take extended leave to care for infants in Japan. The Authority’s data shows that of all male Government workers who took childcare leave last year, 72.1 per cent did so for less than the allowable one month.
Tokyo, 5 November, 2019
