Nippon Life Insurance to provide childcare leave to all male employees
CAREERS JUN. 21, 2013 )
TOKYO —
Nippon Life Insurance Co announced this week that starting from this year, the company will guarantee one week of paid childcare leave to all male employees. By giving new fathers a week off, the company said it hopes to encourage male participation in childcare, Tokyo Shimbun reports.
Although many major companies have childcare arrangements for their male employees, cases which guarantee paid leave are rare. In fact, “it’s unheard of,” according to a chief researcher at the Japan Institute for Labor Policy and Training.
In Japan, childcare leave is usually taken from the date on which the child is born until the first March after the child becomes 1 1/2 years old.
Currently, Nippon Life Insurance Company has about 7,700 male employees. Among them, 280 were eligible for taking childcare leave as of the end of May, Tokyo Shimbun reported. However, so far, only 5% of them actually took the week off. Starting this month, the company’s human resources department said it is checking those who haven’t taken the childcare leave and will encourage them to do so before it expires.
Japan Today
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