7. Akie Uchiyama: Paternity Leave in Japan

Post date: Jan 20, 2019 8:44:31 PM

1. Introduction: Why did I choose this topic?

The purpose of my study is to know why men decide to, or decide not, take paternity leave. Paternity leave is time off work which the father can take when his new baby is born. Moreover, I compare Japanese childcare system with those of other countries.When many people say gender discrimination, it always means women’s discrimination. Certainly, there are a lot of women’s discrimination in Japan, for example, income and a rate of manager in workplace. Japanese women can receive about 73% of men’s income in average (厚生労働省（2016）’平成 28 年賃金構造基本統計調査の概況). Main factor of this problem is duration of service. Many women quit their work when they get married and give birth. Some companies know that many women quit soon, so they think if they spend money and time for women it is a waste of resources. As a result, some companies make women’s wages lower and don’t allow women to practice their skills. This is why women’s income is lower. However, I thought that there is also gender discrimination against men. A good example of that is paternity leave because many men want to take paternity leave but far fewer men actually take paternity leave than women who take maternity leave.

In the next section of this report, I explain the paternity leave situation in Japan. Then, I discuss the reason why the number of men taking paternity leave is low in Japan. Finally, I compare the situation in Japan with that of two other countries, France and Iceland.

2. What is the paternity leave situation in Japan?

In Japan, this system is established in ikuji kyugyou law (育児休業法) which was introduced in 1992. In 1995, this law was made an amendment and became Ikuji-kaigo-kyugyo law (育児介護休業法). In this law, parents can take leave from when their new baby is born to when he or she become 1-year-old. If both parents take it, they are able to take it until their baby becomes 1 year and 2 months (パパ・ママ育休プラス). They can’t divide their leave in general. In other words, if mother takes leave after father take leave, men cannot take again. However, only father using ‘パパママ育休プラス’ could divide their leave. For example, if both parents take leave from birth to 8 weeks and mother take childcare leave from 8 weeks to 1 year, father can take again, but father must take first childcare leave until 8 weeks. As a comparison, women in the UK can take leave for 52 weeks (1 year). Mother must take for 2 weeks. After that, father can use her leave.

While mothers and fathers take leave in Japan, the government provides income of 67% of their wage, Ikuji-kyugyou kyuhu kin（育児休業給付金) from their unemployment insurance. This income is exempted from taxation.

However, many men don’t use this system. According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s research, the rate of Japanese men’s childcare leave was 5.14% (2018). This rate is much lower than that of other countries.

3. Why men take paternity leave? Why don’t men take a paternity leave?

(i). Why men take paternity leave?

I interviewed with two teachers, Thornton Peter sensei and Nakazawa Hideo sensei, who took a paternity leave in Chuo University. Thornton sensei took leave for 3 months and thanks to the system of university and Jinji-ka’s encouragement, he took leave from March to September. Nakazawa sensei also took leave for half a year.

According to interview with a staff of jinji-ka, 159 people took childcare leave including 15 men. Full-time staff first took paternity leave on December 5, 2008 for 1 month.

So why do they take a paternity leave? Thornton sensei thought that paternity leave is right. We can work anytime, but we can only see the growth of child when we raise a child. However, he thinks that some people can’t take it because their income reduces while they take it. If some people live paycheck to paycheck, they can’t take childcare leave because their income decreases. Therefore, he said ‘I am very happy.’ When he and his wife started taking childcare leave, they set a time limit to prevent them from becoming lazy.

On the other hand, Nakazawa sensei answered that he had to take it.’ His wife is also a professor in Osaka. After maternity leave of his wife, she wanted to return to work. However, it was hard to find a day nursery in Osaka. Moreover, his and her parents are in Tokyo, thus, it was difficult to help from their parents if their baby enter a nursery school in Osaka. Therefore, he took for half a year and he looked for a nursery school in Tokyo while he took it.

Then, while they took it, how did they spend their time? At first, Thornton sensei did all housework because there are many things which only mother can do, for example nursing. So, he supported his wife. After 3 months, he started giving milk his baby and Mr. and Ms. Thornton divided housework into halves.

Finally, I asked them how they evaluated childcare leave. Thornton sensei answered that there is nothing bad. Certainly, he sometimes was very sleepy, but that was happy things. He could see their baby’s growth. There are new things every day. On the other hand, Nakazawa sensei learned how to carry out work efficiently in child care, because you never know what a child will do, and parents must do their work in a limited time. We hear that many men make their wives angry in childcare. However, Nakazawa sensei knew it is very hard to take care of child, so, he didn’t make his wife angry.

Nakazawa sensei thinks that demerit of paternity leave is the economic problem. For calculating paternity leave in Japan, income is considered to be base pay and some allowances, but not bonuses. When someone take parental leave, he receives 67% of only base pay. Thus, they must live on a lower income. If the wife works in a part time job, it is difficult for the husband to take paternity leave.

(ii) Why don’t men take a paternity leave?

MitsubishiUFJ Research and Consulting investigated reasons why men did not take paternity leave in 2017. They sent a questionnaire to 1129 men who work full-time. This graph is made from the data of Mitsubishi.

The most commonly given reason was ‘atmosphere in workplace' (職場が育児休業制度を取得しづらい雰囲気だったから), at 26.6%. The second most common reason was ‘the system of childcare leave is not enacted' (会社で育児休業制度が整備されていなかったから), at 26.0%. The reason, ‘very busy because of heavy workload (残業が多い等、業務が繁栄であったため)’, was 21.2%. And ‘worry about decreasing income (休業取得による、所得減等の心配があったから)’, at 18.5% is also high.

According to a survey of public opinion about men’s participation in childcare by Chuo-chousa-sha (中央調査社) in 2012, the rate of ‘Not only mother but also father should take over a portion of childcare and participate in childcare （父親も母親と育児を分担して、積極的に参加すべき）’ was 45.0%. The rate of ‘Father should work, and mother should be intent on childcare. (父親は外で働き、母親が育児に専念すべき)’ was 8.7%. The number of people who have negative opinion about men’s childcare increase with age. In Japan, there is advancement by seniority.

In report of 労務行政研究所, the average age of a chief clerk was 39.6, a section chief was 45.1 and a department chief was 50.7. If manager think men should work, it will be difficult for young subordinate to take paternity leave. I interviewed Izuka Takumi san, a staff of jinji-ka. He didn’t take a paternity leave. He said the main reason was the economic problem. His wife changed job from full-time to part-time job before the child was born. At that time, she could not apply for employment insurance. Therefore, family's income was reduced and he could not afford to take paternity leave.

(iii) What is problem of paternity leave?

According to Jinjika’s opinion, the factors preventing an increase of paternity leave are the paternity leave system, the demands of men's work and the level of income during paternity leave. Many people don’t know this system in detail, for example full-time workers can receive little income, but part-time worker could not receive any income. Moreover, if one person has a task and doesn’t share information about it with colleagues, they cannot take leave. Some people are sorry, so they cannot take it. In addition, according to jinji-ka, companies cannot afford to pay people who take leave and don’t work, so companies cannot afford to pay paternity leave.

Both teachers also point out the economic problem. Actually, it affects marriage and birth. According to 人口減少と社会保障 written by Yamazaki Shuro, the average annual income a couple think they need for marriage is 4.9 million yen. Moreover, the average annual income they think they need for raising children was 5.9 million yen. However, after 30 years old, men’s average annual income become about 5.1 million yen. Therefore, when men become 30 years, they could overcome the marriage hurdle but could not overcome the childraising hurdle. Thus, this economic problem is also a cause of the low birth rate.

4. Paternity Leave in Other Countries: The examples of Iceland and France.

(1) France

According to Business Insider, paternity leave is for 11 days. After maternity leave and paternity leave, French parent can take childcare leave. According to the report by Reach and Legislative Reference Bureau National Diet Library(国立国会図書館調査及び立法考査局), French take childcare leave (Congestion parental d'education) on basis of Labour Code. Men take parental leave for 1 month till their child becomes 3 years old. They can postpone twice, so they can less than 3 years. In general, employees cannot receive their payments. However, if they meet some condition, they can receive ’Presentation portagée d'éducation de l'enfant (育児分担手当)' on basis of 'Code la sécurité social (Code Social Security, 社会保障法典)'. The people who interrupt working for childcare and paid old-age pension insurance for certain periods can receive this allowance. A parent can receive for less than 6 months. The amount of this allowance is 392.09 euros in a month in general, but if a person take part of leave and work for less than 50% of-full time, the amount of allowance is 253.47 euros. National family allowance safe (Caisse d'allocations familiales, CAF, 全国家族手当金庫) manage this allowance and National family allowance safe in each prefecture pay. Funding sources include employer contributions, social security purpose taxes, national contributions, etc.

Let's look at the example of a couple, Damien and Julie, in an article in Huffpost. They don’t get married, but use PACS (Pacte civil de solidarité). PACS is an agreement to live together. Not only different sex couple, but also same sex couple use this system. Damien took paternity leave for 11 days. Moreover, he took birth leave (3 days), leave from government (11 days), Family event leave (4 days), Leave for PACS (7 days) and weekend (8 days). His total leave was for 31 days.

How could they take paternity leave? Damien applied to take long leave 1 month ago, and he postponed his work and moved it forward. Moreover, what I am especially interested in is the ‘binomes’ system at work. ‘Binome’ mean duo. This system is pair work. When there is a task at work, two people take charge of it. Thus, if one person takes leave, the other person could look after it. Many companies introduce this system. In addition, Damien’s company make ‘plan of month-long task and going in work’ visual. Therefore, all employees could know each person’s plan. If a person wants to take leave, other employees could adjust for them. With these systems, Damien could adjust and take leave.

(2) Iceland

Iceland is first in the gender gap ranking of World Economic Forum. Therefore, I thought that Iceland may have an effective system of childcare leave.

According to Slate, Sweden introduced ‘daddy leave’ in 1995 but Iceland was also at the forefront of the movement. In 2000, the Government of Iceland passed a law about parental leave. It was enacted that parents get three months of non-transferable parental leave. It was also enacted that parents get additional three months of leave as a couple to share as they chose. 90% of fathers use this law. In 2007, Icelandic fathers took leave for 101 days. That resulted in closer relationships between fathers and children as well as productivity improving. Recently, a 5-2-5 policy has been introduced, in which mothers and fathers are entitled to five months of non-transferable leave with two additional two months of shared leave. According to Business Insider, while parents are on leave, each parent receives 80% of their salary. According to Iceland magazine, average of Icelander’s total income was 6.4 million ISK (60,000 USD) in 2017. So, they get about 5.12 million ISK (48000 USD) while they are on childcare leave.

As described, Iceland has a good system. This country have tried to bring about true sexual equality, and they became first in the gender gap ranking. However, at first, there was sexual discrimination in Iceland. According to World Economic forum, 'culturally, there exists a notion of “strong women” 'and 'On the religious front, diversity was embraced in the “pre-modern”, pagan society'. 'Women were priestesses and oracles, poets and rune master, merchants and medicine doctors, enjoying respect in society.'However, because of Christianity, gods and goddesses was replaced by one god. Then, women didn't have right to vote and represent. Women began to fight. From 1960s, feminism became a mass movement. In politics, in 1974, women became first priest. Moreover, the first Icelandic women was elected to a municipal government in 1908 and to parliament in 1922 were represented by women's lists. World Economic Forum concluded, 'In conclusion, the status of women in Iceland was, historically, relatively equal to men even though legal equality was not ensured until 1976. Still, every woman is rendered vulnerable if she does not have or is stripped of real power by a system that does not de jure or de facto protect women's rights vis-a-vis men in case of conflict.' In this way, fathers have also made progress in participation in childcare.

5. Conclusion: What Japan Can Do to Encourage More Men to Take Paternity Leave

In Iceland, parents who take parental leave could receive 80% of salary. This system is good for Japan because many men cannot take paternity leave in Japan. If the allowance for childcare leave is increased, the number of people who take paternity leave will increase. However, this approach has a problem. How will it be funded? Now, Japanese labour population is decreasing (厚生労働省'雇用を取り巻く環境と推移'). Therefore, it will become more difficult to collect tax income from the population. However, childcare system is important to increase birth rate.

In France, the system called ‘binômes’ is used. This system’s merit is that each employee knows about each tasks and supply. If this system is introduced in Japan, employees become easier to take leave. However, this system increases the burden of each people if a task is dealt with by two people and either take leave. Therefore, it is important to adjust before he or she takes leave. According to Huffpost, workers in Damien’s company make plan of their task and working time in a month. Each worker could know about task and working time, so they could plan to finish efficiently their work.

If our aim is to increase rate of paternity leave, there are some problems we must address, especially atmosphere in companies, discrimination and low income for families on paternity and maternity leave. We need to change the present conditions quickly, so we should start resolving these problem as soon as possible.

6. References

Iceland magazine（2018）,'How much is the average wage in Iceland?'

厚生労働省（2016）’平成 28 年賃金構造基本統計調査の概況

厚生労働省職業安定局(2018),'雇用を取り巻く環境と推移'

国立国会図書館調査及び立法考査局(2017) '男性の育児休業の取得促進に関する施策の国際比較ー日・米・英・独・仏・スウェーデン・ノルウェー'

Slate(2013),'How Should Parental Leave Be Structured? Ask Iceland'

中央調査社（2012）, ‘父親の育児参加に関する世論調査‘

内閣府男女共同参画局（2017）『共同参画平成29年６月号』

Huffingtonpost (2017), 「男性が産休を取る」フランスでは当たり前だった。

Hamano Megumi (2017) ‘International Comparison of Measures to Promote Fathers’ Take- up of Parental Leave: Cases in Japan, USA, UK, Germany, France, Sweden and Norway’, https://www8.cao.go.jp/shoushi/shoushika/meeting/kokufuku/k_4/pdf/ref1.pdf

Business Insider (2016), ‘These 10 countrieshave the best parental leave policies in the world’

労務行政研究所（2010）,’役職別昇進年齢の実態と昇進スピードの変化の動向‘

World Economic Forum(2018), 'Gender Gap Ranking 2018'

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