Column Finance and the Social Security System 2019.07.17
As explained in Column No. 135, the percentage of employees who acquire childcare leave is defined as follows:
The Abe administration has committed its increase as a measure designed to raise the birthrate. However, statistics released by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in June 2019 indicate that the policy goal is not likely achievable in the near future.
As shown in Figure 1, the percentage of females using childcare leave decreased from 83.2% in 2017 to 82.2% in 2018, but improved from 5.14% to 6.16% among males over the same period. As shown in Figures 2 and 3, there are very large gaps between industries.