TOKYO - The rate of men in Japan taking child care leave topped 50 percent for the first time in fiscal 2025, apparently boosted by government efforts to encourage fathers to take the time off, the labor ministry said Friday.
Last fiscal year, the rate rose 10.4 percentage points from a year earlier to 50.9 percent, increasing for the 13th straight year, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. The survey was first conducted in fiscal 1993.
The figure reached the government's target of 50 percent by 2025. The ministry attributed the increase to gains at smaller workplaces, but women remained far ahead at 88.3 percent, with a notable gap also in the length of leave taken.
Recent support measures appear to be paying off, including requiring employers to explain the child care leave system to employees who report a pregnancy or childbirth and introducing a more accessible postnatal paternity leave program.
The survey covered women and men whose children were born between October 2023 and September 2024 and checked whether they had taken child care leave by October 2025.
By workplace size, the rate for men at businesses with five to 29 employees rose to 42.9 percent from 25.1 percent in the previous survey, while that at those with 500 or more employees increased to 60.7 percent from 53.8 percent.
For men, the most common leave period was one month to under three months, at 30.3 percent. For women, the largest share, at 31.4 percent, took leave for 12 months to under 18 months.
The government has set a target of raising the paternity leave rate to 85 percent by 2030. The latest survey covered about 6,300 workplaces with five or more employees and received responses from 3,291.
