Fathers are doing more child care in East Asia
For years Ito Tsubasa never questioned his family life: he worked long hours while his wife did all the housework. So it came as a shock when his wife, pregnant with their second child, suggested he take parental leave so she could focus on her career. After a heated argument, he eventually gave in, taking six months of parental leave. His experience of staying at home has transformed his understanding of what it means to be a father. “I used to think I was a great dad just because I played with the child on the weekends,” says Mr Ito (pictured), whose children are now eight and four. “I couldn’t have been more wrong.” Today, he and his wife share the housework evenly.
Mr Ito is not alone. Across East Asia a quiet revolution is reshaping fatherhood. Rigid and conservative gender roles, which involve a male breadwinner and a female caretaker, have been the norm for decades and remain entrenched across the region. Yet younger men are increasingly setting their priorities outside work, and married couples are moving towards a more egalitarian approach to child care. In Japan the share of eligible men taking paternity leave reached 30% in 2023. That is a sharp increase from 17% in the previous year and a mere 2% a decade ago. In South Korea, 6.8% of eligible men took paternity leave in 2022. That is still shockingly low, but up from less than 1% in 2016.
Alongside this, women are educated and employed at levels never seen before. In Japan the employment rate for women aged 25-39 surpassed 80% for the first time in 2022. In South Korea 74% of women aged 25-29 are now employed. In Japan and Taiwan more than 60% of households have two incomes. In South Korea the share is close to half.
Daddy issues
What is perhaps surprising is that it has taken so long. According to one ranking, Japan and South Korea have the best paid parental-leave policies for men worldwide. Fathers in both countries are entitled to a full year of paid leave. In Japan, nearly 70% of pay is compensated for the first 180 days. Yet young employees often hesitate to use such benefits, largely due to the desire to conform to the expectations set by gerontocratic male managers. Even if they do, it tends to be somewhat performative. In Japan, most men go on leave for less than two weeks, whereas 95% of women do so for six months or more.
By contrast Taiwan is relatively progressive compared with its neighbours. In 2023 its gender pay gap was as narrow as 15%, compared with 31% in South Korea and 21% in Japan. According to the World Values Survey, a global research outfit, fully 64% of Taiwanese men disagree that it is a “problem if women have more income than their husband”, whereas only 26% of Japanese and 28% of South Korean men do. But Taiwan’s paid parental leave lacks flexibility and sets a monthly upper limit of NT$36,640 (around $1,100), which means a huge cut in pay for higher earners. Even so, Teng Kai-yuan, a Taiwanese man with a nine-year-old son, was determined not to become like his own aloof father. “Both my wife and I hated the fact that our fathers did not spend time with us,” he says. Mr Teng splits the housework with his wife 50-50; his weekends are dedicated to family activities such as camping.
The implications of such shifts could be profound. A study by Matthias Doepke, an economist at the London School of Economics, revealed a positive correlation between men’s share of the housework and fertility rates across rich countries. That could help reverse a demographic crisis. Last year South Korea’s fertility rate reached a record low of 0.72, while Japan’s was at 1.2 and Taiwan’s at 0.87. Babies—and better dads—are urgently needed. ■