Photo/Illutration Male employees at Nissan Motor Co. use a virtual experience device to experience menstrual pain in Yokohama on Oct. 7. (Akihiro Nishiyama)

In male-dominated Japanese business circles, women often garner little empathy from their bosses and colleagues about the need to take menstrual leave.

However, a recent survey conducted by the Cabinet Office showed that allowing such leave would improve the workplace for women.

Some companies are currently taking steps for improvement by holding a training program where male workers can “experience” menstrual pain by wrapping electrode pads around their lower abdomen.

To these companies, securing human resources and creating a comfortable work environment for women remain a challenge.

By holding such an event, the program’s organizer hopes to broaden understanding and sympathy in the workplace by letting men experience something similar to actual menstrual pain.

On Oct. 7, 20 or so employees, both male and female, participated in a training program to experience menstrual pain held at the Nissan Motor Co. Global Headquarters in Yokohama.

Participants attached electrode pads to their lower abdomen and wiring was connected to a menstrual pain virtual reality experience device called the “Perionoid.”

When the device was turned on, a painful sensation was felt in their lower abdomen.

The device can reproduce three levels of pain—weak, medium and strong.

The strong level is said to be similar to the pain that 80 percent of women feel during menstrual pain.

When the “strong” switch was turned on, male participants who experienced it said one by one, “I can’t work with this pain going on all the time,” or “I don’t feel the pain that much, but I can’t help but bend over.”

A 30-year-old male employee said he participated in the program because his wife seemed to be suffering from menstrual cramps and he wanted to experience them for himself.

“I could actually understand the pain,” he said. “I want to try to imagine other people’s pain and treat them with compassion.”

On Oct. 16, Panasonic Connect Co. held a similar training event with about 50 employees--both male and female--participating.

Yasuyuki Higuchi, the company’s CEO, experienced the pain himself and said, “In many companies, most executives are male, so it is important to understand the feelings of women, who are in the minority.”

At the company, while employees are allowed to take leave for menstrual cramps, Higuchi said, “It is also important to have a workplace culture that makes it easy to take (leave).”

According to Linkage, a Tokyo-based company that provides the training program, in the most recent year, training sessions using the Perionoid have been conducted at more than 100 companies.

The training program has been held at companies regardless of the industry type or the size, including predominantly male workplaces, Linkage said.

The survey was conducted in fiscal 2023 by the Cabinet Office on the health awareness of men and women.

A total of 20,000 men and women were asked, “What kind of consideration for health issues specific to women would make it easier for you to work in the workplace?”

Among female respondents aged from 20 to 39, 28 percent, the highest, said, “Creating an environment that makes it easier to take menstrual leave.”

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