Workers' Feelings on Efforts to Balance Work and Child-Rearing
In past issues, the Japan Labor Flash introduced the efforts of the government, labor, and management to improve systems to help balance work and child-rearing, as a step towards halting the drop in the birthrate. It has also cited an increasing number of firms which have launched or improved systems to help employees achieve a balance between work and family life, and some firms, even, which have established child-care leave systems for male workers. The results of a survey carried out by the National Personnel Authority and published at the end of September show that the proportion of firms with such systems is 69.7 percent. Despite all this, the survey also reveals that while 87.3 percent of the firms surveyed said that they made efforts to make the system widely known to employees, a mere 16.1 percent took steps of one kind or another to encourage eligible workers to actually take the leave, and only 14.7 percent set any numerical targets.
Another survey (conducted in fiscal year 2005 by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare) demonstrates the fact that, while as many as 72.3 percent of the female workers surveyed had taken child-care leave, the proportion of male workers who had taken leave remained low, a mere 0.5 percent.
What makes male workers hesitate to take child-care leave? How do female workers view this issue? A survey carried out by UI Zensen Domei (the Japanese Federation of Textile, Chemical, Food, Commercial, Service and General Workers' Unions) - the results of which were published in September - captured, by asking detailed questions, the actual views of workers striving to achieve a balance between work and child-rearing.
Answers common to a large proportion of respondents seem to explain the reasons behind the failure of men to take leave. The following are some example responses: "because I sometimes find it difficult to leave the office on time, I had to do overtime to keep colleagues company" (44% of the respondents said "fairly true" or "true to a certain degree"); "I cannot catch up with my work unless I do overtime on a regular basis" (56.4% of the respondents said "fairly true" or "true to a certain degree"); and "the atmosphere of the workplace makes it easy for male workers to take child-care leave" (65% of the respondents said "not applicable").
On the other hand, female workers chose "to make a living" (74%) or "the necessity for females to be financially independent" (82%, including "applicable" and "applicable to a certain degree") as reasons for working. While a majority (60%) "feel a sense of guilt at failing to spend enough time with family," they believe that they should continue working, and prefer "jobs which provide adequate training and opportunities for promotion" to "easygoing ones with no opportunity to be promoted to higher positions."
This survey has clarified, with regard to policies that facilitate a balance between work and family life, that a majority of workers prefer a "reduction in working hours," "better child-care leave system," or "sharing of the burden of child-rearing and domestic duties by their spouses," rather than "an extension of service hours at nurseries," "a better re-employment system," or "better services provided by private firms for child-care and domestic work." In sum, for a better balance of work and family life, they are calling for conditions under which they can continue working while taking care of their children. In particular, female workers reject working hours which bind them to the office for long hours; they also call for a work environment which allows them more freedom to choose their working style, and would like their spouses to be more committed to child-rearing and domestic chores.
This questionnaire survey was sent to 945 couples (working women with children and their spouses) across the country. Responses were returned by 514 couples (including those where either the women or their spouses returned the surveys). The average age of the responding working women (of whom regular employees accounted for 78% and part-time workers 18%) was 38.0, the age of their spouses (regular employees accounted for 94%) being 39.7.
