Japan has one of the most generous paternity leave provisions in the world, yet of the country’s 700-plus members of parliament, only one has decided to exercise his right to take paid child leave.



Kensuke Miyazaki, a 34-year-old politician from the governing Liberal Democratic party (LDP), will become Japan’s first politician to take paternity leave when his wife, fellow lower house MP Megumi Kaneko, has their first child next month.

In exercising his right to take time off to care for his newborn child, Miyazaki has set himself apart from the vast majority of working men in Japan, where employer pressure forces them to waive their right to paternity leave.

Last year, just 2.3% of those eligible for paternity leave actually took it, a trend that critics say reinforces the male-dominated work culture and discourages more women from entering the workforce.

“I thought by declaring that I want to take paternity leave as a lawmaker, I could set an example and cause a bit of a stir,” Miyazaki told the BBC.

Ironically, Japan has “by far the most generous paid father-specific entitlement”, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). New fathers in work are entitled to 12 months paternity leave, and retain almost 60% of their salary. South Korea, where the paternity leave take-up rate is as low as Japan’s, offers fathers a year and six days off, on 31% of their salary. That contrasts with countries such as Sweden, where almost 90% of men take paternity leave, and 16 months of parental leave can be split between new mothers and fathers.

Pressure on Japanese men to continue performing their traditional role as breadwinner after becoming fathers threatens to frustrate attempts by the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, to encourage more women to enter the workforce and boost economic growth.

About 60% of Japanese women leave permanent employment after having children, partly because of the poor availability of childcare – a problem that could be partly solved by more stay-at-home fathers.

The problem has been exacerbated by a rise in the number of complaints about maternity harassment – dismissal, demotion, unfair treatment and verbal abuse after giving birth.

Abe says he wants to raise the number of women in the workforce and reduce the pay gap. Currently, women on average earn 70% of a man’s salary for the same work, placing it a lowly 104th out of 142 countries In the World Economic Forum’s 2014 global gender gap index.

At 64%, Japan’s female participation rate in the labour force, compared with 84% for men, is one of the lowest among the 34 leading economies of the OECD.

The social stigma attached to paternity leave is not confined to Japan and South Korea, however. In a recent UK survey by Opinion Matters, 40% of men said they opted out of their right to take time off for childcare.

Miyazaki, who has told LDP colleagues he plans to take about a month off from his duties in the lower house, has been criticised for his decision.

The secretary general of the LDP, Sadakazu Tanigaki, even suggested his absence could damage the party’s fortunes during the current parliamentary session. “There will be a problem during an extremely tense situation if one vote can make a difference in the outcome,” he told reporters.

The Japanese government plans to offer subsidies to companies that allow fathers to take time off in an attempt to lift the paternity leave rate to 13% by the end of the decade.

When announcing his decision last month, Miyazaki said he wanted to “promote men’s participation in child-rearing”, adding: “I’m ready to work hard to help realise a society in which everyone plays an active role.”