Column Finance and the Social Security System 2018.06.29
In May 2018, the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare released a report on the percentage of employees who use childcare leave programs in companies. This percentage was calculated with the following formula:
[The number of people who acquired or planned to acquire childcare leave]
[Number of females (or males whose spouses gave birth) who gave birth from October 1, two years ago to September 30 of the previous year]
As illustrated in Figure 1, the percentage of women using childcare leave has greatly improved from 49.1% in 1996 to 83.2% in 2017. However, for men, as of 2017, it is as low as 5.14%, but it is rising gradually. In order to compensate for the labor shortages from the rising employment rates of women, it is necessary to increase the percentage of men who use childcare leave.
Source: Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare