Pigeon conducted a survey on attitudes toward childcare leave in conjunction with the implementation of the revised Child Care and Family Care Leave Law. While about half of "future fathers" would like to take more than one month of childcare leave, in reality, about 80% would take less than one week.

In response to the revised Child Care and Family Care Leave Law that will take effect in April, Pigeon conducted a survey of married men aged 25 to 39 nationwide. Among them, about 70% of pre-parents whose partners are currently pregnant with their first child or who are thinking of having a child in the future wanted to take childcare leave and were highly conscious of their participation in childcare, while 50% of men who already have a child took childcare leave, and 80% of them actually took less than one week, although they wanted a month or more of childcare leave. In reality, however, 80% of them only take a week or less of leave.

Let's take a look at the details from the press release.

- The following is content from the press release -

Designing a maternity leave system that also includes income support, promoting understanding in the workplace, and creating a system to cover work duties are keys to closing the gap between the ideal and reality.

Pigeon Corporation (Headquarters: Tokyo; President: Norimasa Kitazawa) surveyed a total of 7,345 married men aged 25-39 nationwide on their attitudes and actual conditions toward taking childcare leave in response to the implementation of the revised Child Care and Family Care Leave Law from April 1, 2011.

The results of the survey showed a gap between the intention and reality of taking childcare leave, with approximately 70% of men who are thinking of having children in the future (hereafter referred to as "pre-pre-parents") and men whose partner is currently pregnant with their first child (hereafter referred to as "pre-parents") saying they would like to take childcare leave, indicating a high awareness of childcare participation, while the percentage of men with children who have already taken childcare leave is only about 50%. On the other hand, the percentage of men with children who took childcare leave was only about 50%, indicating a gap between the reality and the 70% of men with children. Furthermore, in terms of the intention and reality of the length of leave, although half of the "future fathers" (pre-pre-parents and pre-parents) wanted to take "one month or more" of childcare leave, in reality, 80% of men took only "one week or less. The survey also revealed that approximately 50% of men who do not intend to take childcare leave are concerned about a decrease in their income and the impact on their promotions, etc., which are major obstacles to their taking childcare leave. Companies and workplaces are required to design a childcare leave system that includes income support so that they can respond flexibly to men's desire to take childcare leave and to changes in society and work styles.

Pigeon is engaged in a variety of initiatives to make the world a more baby-friendly place. In order to create a baby-friendly social environment, it is essential to establish a childcare system that allows men to be actively involved in childcare and to create a workplace culture and atmosphere. In order to realize a society where married couples can be equally involved in child-rearing, we will continue to provide information and support for child-rearing in a variety of ways.

Survey Summary
Survey target: A total of 7,345 married men (including those in de facto marriages) aged 25-39 living nationwide ●Survey date: January 21-26, 2022 ●Survey method: Web-based questionnaire survey

Details of Survey Results

*The terms "childcare leave" and "childcare leave system" within the questions in this survey refer to both childcare leave (a law set by the government) and childcare leave (a system voluntarily established by each company as one of its leave systems).

70% of "future fathers" have a high intention to take childcare leave.

In response to the question, "If a childcare leave system is introduced at your place of work in accordance with the revision of the Child Care and Family Care Leave Law, do you want to take childcare leave when you have a child in the future? responded that they would like to take childcare leave. Furthermore, 64.9% of "pre-papas" responded in the same way,The overall intention of "future fathers" to take childcare leave reached 67.7%, or about 70%.I was very pleased with the results.

The actual maternity leave take-up rate is only about 50%.
Large gap between acquisition intentions revealed

While approximately 70% of "future fathers" indicated their intention to take maternity leave, when fathers with at least one child were asked, "Did you take any maternity or paid leave for childbirth or childcare between the birth of your child and the first year of his/her life?50.4% of all respondents answered that they have not taken (either maternity or paid) leave.The percentage of employees who took leave through the maternity leave system was 26.4% (overall). When limited to the percentage of employees who took leave through the maternity leave system, the take-up rate was low at 26.41 TP6T (overall).
The survey revealed a large gap between men's desire to take childcare leave and the actual rate at which they take childcare leave.

Nearly 50% of "future fathers" envision a maternity leave period of "a month or more," but nearly 80% of actual fathers envision a maternity leave period of "a week or less.

When asked "If you were to take maternity leave, how long would you plan to take it?" nearly 50% of "future fathers" answered "one month or longer," while nearly 50% of "future fathers" answered "one month or longer,Not only did only over 10% of fathers actually take more than one month of maternity leave, but it also highlighted the fact that nearly 80% of fathers only took a short period of maternity leave of one week or less.The company is now in the process of

Anxiety about reduced income" is the No. 1 reason why men are not taking maternity leave.

In the question "Why do you think you do not want to take maternity leave?" to men who do not want to take maternity leave,The top response, "I am worried about my income decreasing," accounted for 46.8% of all responses.The result. Next."Impact on future careers.", ,It's not good for the workplace.", ,The most common reason cited was "There is an atmosphere of difficulty in taking maternity leave at my place of work.The company has also been working to increase the number of employees who take childcare leave. To increase the rate of maternity leave,In addition to the establishment of a maternity leave system that includes income support, it is important to create a system to take over the work at the workplace and to strongly encourage employees to take maternity leave from their workplaces and colleagues.It can be said that

Comparison of reasons for taking maternity leave by pre-papa/pre-papa/papa
In addition to the response from the employer, encouragement from the wife/partner was a trigger for taking maternity leave.

When "future fathers" who intend to take childcare leave and fathers who have actually taken childcare leave were asked "Why did you want to take childcare leave? and "I want to raise my child together with my partner" were the top answers, regardless of whether they had children or not.
One of the reasons why the percentage of fathers who actually took maternity leave was higher than that of "future fathers" was that they were asked to do so by their wives/partners (11.9%),In addition to the establishment of a maternity leave system in the workplace and the creation of a positive atmosphere for taking maternity leave, encouragement from wives and partners can trigger and encourage men to take maternity leave.The following is a brief description of the situation.

The top reasons for wanting to take maternity leave are "if the salary is not reduced," "if there is a strong push from the workplace," and "if there is a system in place for the absence. Positive attitude on the part of the company is the key to promoting the use of maternity leave.

The most common reasons for wanting to take maternity leave are'Unless my salary is reduced' (47.6%)secondly
If there was a strong push from my employer to acquire the certificate" (43.4%), ,'If my employer had a system in place for me to work while I am on leave' (30.6%)and isMany want their employers to respond.The result.Take maternity leave with peace of mind by receiving encouragement from your employer or having a system in place.The survey indicated that the respondents believe that

However, it is also true that self-help efforts at each workplace alone have limitations in developing a system to promote the use of childcare leave. In addition to the establishment of laws such as the recently revised Child Care and Family Care Leave Law, the government is also required to make improvements such as establishing a system to compensate for the reduction in income during childcare leave.

reference information

Please refer to the following website for the details of the amendments to the Child Care and Family Care Leave Law that triggered this survey and for further information.
Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, "About the Child Care and Family Care Leave Law:https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/0000130583.html

About Us

Company name: Pigeon Corporation
Representative: Norimasa Kitazawa, President and Representative Director
Location: 4-4 Nihonbashi Hisamatsucho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 103-8480 Establishment: August 1957
Business activities: Manufacture, sale, and import/export of childcare, maternity, women's care, home health care, and nursing care products, as well as childcare business
URL:https://www.pigeon.co.jp/