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Japanese government wants men to have more family time

October 20, 2007
By Ken Worsley


The Asahi Shimbun today reported on government plans to “halve in 10 years the percentage of workers who put in 60 hours or more a week from 10.8 percent in 2006″ and also “to raise the percentage of male workers who take child-care leave to 10 percent, up from the current 0.5 percent.” The stated goal of this program is to increase the nation’s birth rate.

The plan to keep men from working so much, however, seems to have fatal Catch-22: if Japan’s men work less, who will pick up the slack? According to the government, women and the elderly will. The Asahi tells us:

[T]he government aims to have 69-72 percent of women between 25 and 44 in the work force in 10 years, up from the current 65 percent…The government also aims to raise the rate of women in employment after their first childbirth to 55 percent in 10 years, up from the current 38 percent…For people in the age bracket between 60 and 64, the employment-rate targets, also in 10 years, are 79-80 percent for men and 41-43 percent for women, up, respectively, from the current 67 percent and 39 percent.

So…if more women are working more hours - which they should be able to do if they want to - who is going to have these children?

For me, the kicker was this statistic: “[T]he government plans to have workers take 60 percent of their paid leave in five years, up from the current 47 percent.”

I’ve always taken 100% of mine. I guess I’ve always felt I’ve earned them.

Filed Under Business, Demographics, Employment, Japan 

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Comments

8 Responses to “Japanese government wants men to have more family time”

  1. Contrarian on October 20th, 2007 11:02 am

    If they think people aren’t having enough babies because of too much work, they have another thing coming. People tend not to have children because of fiscal uncertainty.

    At my last job, I took 0 percent of my paid vacation because it was just that–paid. If I didn’t use it, they paid it out at the end of the year. At JPMorgan, no such luck. I got an email from my boss last week warning me that if I don’t use it, I lose it (which is ridiculous because if I ask for a day off, he has veto authority). We’ll see what he has to say when I tell him that I’m scheduling Friday off the rest of the year ;)

  2. Greg L. on October 20th, 2007 2:54 pm

    Whoah Nelly! Better not be too ambitious with them thar goals. Workers taking 60% of their paid holidays? If the government really cares about this stuff why don’t they just legislate? How about some hefty penalty for companies where staff take less than half of their paid holidays over a two year period? I’ve heard anecdotally that Japanese bond/stock/derivative etc. traders have to take all their paid vacation these days. Their companies use the time that they are away to audit their activities and make sure they haven’t been up to anything dodgy.

  3. Ken Worsley on October 20th, 2007 4:30 pm

    Contrarian, good point. Most firms in Japan do not paid out unused holidays as cash. I actually can’t think of one that I know of that does.

    Good luck with the three day weekends!

  4. Garrett on October 21st, 2007 10:30 pm

    What I especially love is the underlying assumption that, with more time off, men are going to automatically going to spend that time at home. . . erm. . . getting “reacquainted” with their wives. That is very, very far from a safe assumption. It is deeply worrying that the best idea the Government of Japan has to combat a falling birthrate is to mimic local governors in Siberia, where there’s naught to do but shag the missus.

    Boneheaded, through and through. People take time off from work, paid or not, when they feel secure in their positions. People have kids when they feel financially secure. Contrarian is dead on. The problem is not working too much.

  5. Ken Worsley on October 21st, 2007 11:00 pm

    Garrett and Contrarian, you’re both dead on. This is entirely about financial security. As we now, about 1/3 of the workforce is now non-regular (contract) employees. Great for companies, bad for the people. Even if the government does understand this (which I’m sure they do), I don’t expect to see them address the issue.

  6. Huth on October 22nd, 2007 6:48 pm

    I translate this to meaning “more time for golf.”

  7. Schmendric on October 24th, 2007 6:16 pm

    They can definitely sue the companies not making their employees take 100% of their holidays. In UK, for instance, the Law establishes that all workers HAVE TO take all their holidays. It is a perfect way to protect the people from the possible enterprise cannibalism (… that we see every day in Japan)

  8. Mr. Noah on October 27th, 2007 7:35 am

    Garrett - I think the idea is that the men will spend the time at home taking care of the kids, thus easing the burden of childrearing on mothers, which will make larger families more appealing to women.

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