Japan plans to require firms to set paternity leave targets

The disclosure of paternity leave is set to be included in action plans on workplace support for raising children that the government requires the companies with over 100 employees to compile, the sources said. The action plans will also include targets such as on overtime per full-time worker, they said.

The companies are asked to submit the action plans to the ministry’s labour bureaus and then make them public, the sources said.

The ministry can issue recommendations for companies who do not disclose the targets to do so, they said.

Since April last year, companies with over 1,000 employees are already required to publish data on the percentage of male workers who have taken paternity leave.

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In a survey conducted by the ministry in financial year 2022 of 1,000 full-time male workers, roughly 620 men said they had never taken paternity leave, of whom 39.9 per cent cited concern about decreased income as a reason in a question with multiple answers permitted. Some 22.5 per cent mentioned feeling difficulty due to their work environment or because their companies or supervisors lacked understanding of such leave.

The ministry also plans to submit another bill to the current Diet session to expand the scope of the paternity leave data disclosure requirement to companies with over 300 employees from April 2025, the sources said.