While the rate for men who took paternity leave in Japan hit a record high in the last fiscal year, only about two in 10 eligible took it as the choice remains complicated.

In fiscal 2022, 17.13 percent of men took paternity leave, 3.16 percentage points higher than the previous fiscal year, according to the welfare ministry.

In comparison, 80.2 percent of women took child care leave in the last fiscal year.

Sept. 19 is dubbed “ikukyu wo kangaeru hi” (The day to think about child care leave) in Japan.

“Ikyukyu” means “child care leave” in Japanese. The choice of the date plays on the words: “iku,” which sounds like the number 19, and “kyu,” which is 9 (September).

The Asahi Shimbun conducted a survey of those who took paternity leave, those who did not and those who could not and asked respondents about their thoughts and circumstances.

DIFFICULT DECISION

“You don’t ask women, ‘Why did you decide to take maternity leave?’ do you,’” said Yuki Mimura, 32, who works in the information technology operations and planning department at Japan Airlines Co.

“We are both parents, so I think it is normal for men to take leave,” he said.

Mimura took paternity leave from July last year until March this year following the birth of his first child.

One of his senior male colleagues told him, “When I was working, I could not do anything to help with child care, so I felt out of place (when I was at home.)”

Other colleagues also recommended Mimura take the leave.

On the other hand, an employee in his 30s who works for a listed company in the Kanto region did not take the leave.

“If doing so would cause problems for others, it’s better for me to manage the job myself,” he said.

At the time, the employee was working in public relations on a team along with several people.

“The absence of even one team member would significantly affect the others,” he said.

Although his wife, who was on maternity leave, asked him to take one, too, he apologized, saying, “I have important work to do.”

He said he wanted to work because it was at a crucial time for his career advancement.

It is common for male employees to take child care leave at his company.

“I would have taken the leave if I had been in a department that does not handle emergency responses,” he said.

Some wanted to take paternity leave but could not.

A man in his 30s who works in the pharmaceutical industry and lives in Tokyo became a father this year but was unable to take the leave.

He was not eligible to do so because he had only joined the company a few months before.

The Child Care and Family Care Leave Law stipulates that employers cannot refuse a worker’s request for child care leave. But if a labor union has reached a labor-management agreement with the firm, the law says that “workers employed for less than one year can be exempted.”

NAVIGATING WORK OPTIONS

Taking care of a child continues after parental leave, of course, making a flexible work style essential.

Ryosuke Fujimaru, 31, is an employee of All Nippon Airways Co. with a 2-year-old and a 1-year-old child. He has been working shorter hours under the company’s system since April.

After he spoke with his wife, who also works, the couple decided that she would work full time and that he would work from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“I thought just managing somehow would be too stressful. Besides, I wanted to be the main parent taking care of our children since my wife had taken maternity leave,” he said.

Although there were no men around Fujimaru using the shortened working hours system, he said he had no conflicted feelings at all.

ANA allows employees to use the system regardless of the reason, and the company says around 10 people are currently utilizing it.

PROMOTING LEAVE

Sekisui House Ltd., a major housing company that promotes paternity leave, established the “day to think about child care leave” in 2019.

The company registered the day with the Japan Anniversary Association.

About 119 companies and organizations, including The Asahi Shimbun, support the company’s paternity leave project.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida set the goal of increasing the rate of male employees taking child care leave to 50 percent by fiscal 2025 and 85 percent by fiscal 2030.

The government is considering measures such as raising the parental leave benefits for both men and women from the current 67 percent of wages earned before the leave to about 80 percent starting in fiscal 2025.

In addition, the government mandated companies with more than 1,000 employees to disclose their paternity leave rates from April.

Of the companies with a fiscal year ending in March that are required to disclose their rates by the end of June, 86.8 percent, including those that are planning to make the disclosure, did so.

The average amount of leave taken by men at companies that responded was 46.5 days.

On the other hand, it is said to be harder for employees in small and midsize businesses to take child care leave compared to those in large companies.

The Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and other organizations conducted a survey of around 6,000 small and midsize businesses nationwide last year.

Of the 2,880 companies that responded, 52.4 percent said they did not have the personnel to replace those taking child care leave.