Things that changed and things that did not change, as revealed in the proposal and issues raised in the FY2003 White Paper on Health and Welfare and FY2002 Basic Survey on Employment Management of Woman

According to the FY2002 Basic Survey on Employment Management of Woman that was conducted in October 2002 targeting about 10,000 business offices with five or more regular employees, 61.4% of the business offices with five or more employees and 81.1% of those with 30 or more employees had a system of childcare leave in place. These figures have increased by 7.9 percentage points and 4.1 percentage points, respectively, over the previous survey conducted in FY1999. A total of 64.0% of the female workers took childcare leave, up 7.6 percentage points over the previous survey.

On the other hand, only 0.33% of the male employees took childcare leave, down by 0.09 percentage points.

These figures show that, while the childcare leave system is increasingly being utilised among women, there still is a pervasive feeling among men that it is unacceptable to take leave for childcare reasons.

The FY2003 White Paper on Health and Welfare was presented at a cabinet meeting held on August 1. To prepare for the full-scale arrival of society with few children and a large elderly population, the report proposed an inter-generational work-sharing scheme to solve young people's childcare needs and problems by expanding opportunities for elderly people to become employed and take part in social activities.

In addition, the White Paper showed that the share of elderly people living with their children last year decreased to 47%, while the share of such people living by themselves increased to 49%, the first time for latter figure to be larger than the former. The number of elderly persons living alone rose to about 3.41 million, close to twice the number posted ten years ago. These figures sharpen the realisation as to the rapid and dramatic changes that are taking place in Japan's family and social structures. Intergenerational human relationships are weakening, constituting a major change that may alter how Japanese people in the future think and act.

The White Paper's proposal, as well as the issues raised by the Basic Survey on Employment Management of Woman that, to make more men take childcare leave, it is necessary "for companies to work on changing the awareness of the employees such as improving the general workplace atmosphere that makes men hesitate to take such leave," are both important. The White Paper points out that about one-fourth of all the men in their 30s who belong to the child rearing generation are forced to work extended hours, often more than 60 hours per week, and identifies the areas that need to be improved. A specific implementation plan is now awaited that could ultimately provide effective solutions to the problem.