Japan legalises Paternity leaves but Japanese fathers 'afraid' to loose promotions

Japan has announced paternity leave for the father and wants 85% of male workers to take paternity leave, however, fathers are too afraid to take it, as per CNN reports. Recently, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has unveiled a raft of policies, including boosts to child support and a pledge to lift the number of male workers taking paternity leave from the current 14 % to 50 % by 2025, and 85 % by 2030. The step by government has been taken to seize the “last chance to reverse” the situation in Japan.

Japanese authorities have widely promoted two terms ikuji, which means care for children, and ikemen, which refers to cool-looking men in the past decades. This has been promoted to fight against the country’s notoriously long working hours. The long working hours have deprived workaholic fathers of family time and stay-home mothers of careers rather have helped drive the birth rate to one of the lowest in the world.

Patriarchy leaves in Japan

Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, has long struggled with a falling fertility rate and an ageing population and has been sceptical that the plan can really move the needle. "The government’s plan was well-intentioned, many Japanese men were simply too scared to take paternity leave due to potential repercussions from their employers," said Makoto Iwahashi, a member of POSSE, a labour union dedicated to younger workers. Currently, with this new law, Japanese men have been entitled to four weeks of flexible paternity leave, for up to 80% of their salary, under a bill passed by the Japanese parliament in 2021. Further, he added that despite the law, the fathers in Japan have been “afraid” of taking leave and think that it may have a negative effect on their promotion prospects or that they may be reassigned to a different position with fewer responsibilities. The worker, Iwahashi, also shared that it is illegal to discriminate against workers who take maternity and paternity leave in Japan. 

“A little tweak on paternity leave won’t significantly change a declining birth rate,” said Iwahashi. Meanwhile, an economics professor at Meiji University in Tokyo, Hisakazu Kato, said "big companies had become more accepting of parental leave over the years, smaller firms still had reservations." Further, he added, “Small companies are afraid they will face (worker shortages) due to childcare leave, and this puts pressure on young fathers who want to take childcare leave in future.”