Low Birthrate All-Out Effort... Japan to Increase Companies Disclosing 'Male Parental Leave Rate'

Promotion of Socio-Cultural Awareness Reform through Usage Rate Disclosure
2021 Leave of Absence Rate 14%... Expected to Reach 85% by 2030

The Japanese government, which has mandated large corporations to publicly disclose the rate of male parental leave uptake to address low birth rates, is expanding the scope of corporate disclosure requirements.

On the 26th, Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) reported that the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is considering expanding the obligation to disclose male parental leave rates, currently applied to companies with over 1,000 employees, to companies with over 300 employees.

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The Labor Policy Council, an advisory body to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, is discussing this measure, and the government is expected to submit a related bill to the Diet as early as next year.

If the bill passes, the number of companies in Japan required to disclose male parental leave rates will increase from about 4,000 to approximately 18,000.

The purpose is to promote social awareness reform by publicly disclosing usage rates, thereby creating an environment where both men and women can more easily balance work and childcare.

However, expanding the scope may impose burdens on some companies, so within the government, there is discussion about requiring companies with fewer than 1,000 employees, especially small businesses, to disclose this information once every two years.

Earlier, from April this year, the Japanese government mandated companies with more than 1,000 employees to disclose the annual male parental leave usage rate. This was because low male parental leave uptake has been identified as one of the factors contributing to the low birth rate problem.

As of 2021, the male parental leave rate in Japan was 14%. Within Japan, this level has been criticized as very low compared to European countries such as Norway. Norway’s male parental leave rate exceeded 70% in 2018, and France made male parental leave usage mandatory in July 2021.

The Japanese government has set goals to increase the male parental leave usage rate to 50% by 2025 and 85% by 2030 to promote male participation in childcare.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is also discussing new measures to set targets for the number of parental leave days and childcare/housework hours to encourage behavioral changes among men. In Japan, not only is the usage rate of parental leave low, but more than 50% of the leave periods are shorter than two weeks, which is also pointed out as a problem.

Last year, the number of births in Japan was 772,000, falling below 800,000 for the first time in history.

However, increasing parental leave uptake raises challenges such as increased workload for existing employees and the need for reforms in corporate work styles. A recent survey by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare found that companies where work does not stop regardless of who takes leave and that devise personnel arrangements tend to have higher male parental leave uptake rates.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.