~Today, a press conference was held to announce the new stage of the project, starting in fiscal year 2025.
- The following is content from the press release -
On Friday, July 4, 2025, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) held a press conference regarding the successor project to the "Ikumen Project" and announced the launch of the "Tomoiku (co-education) Project.
The "Ikumen Project" has been implemented as a public relations project with the aim of fostering social momentum for male workers to take a more active role in childcare and to take childcare leave without hesitation.
Combined with successive revisions of the Child Care and Family Care Leave Law, the male childcare leave utilization rate reached a record high of 30.1% (in FY2023), fulfilling to a certain extent the initial objective of the project.
On the other hand, issues remain, such as the large gap between men and women in terms of the length of time taken off for childcare leave and time related to household chores, and the long working hours of men in the workplace that have not been reviewed.
For this reason, we have decided to renew the "Ikumen Project," which has been implemented up to now, into the "Tomoiku Project," which will continue to promote the use of childcare leave by men, while also making the use of childcare leave a concrete "trigger" for reviewing the division of housework and childcare between men and women, and correcting "long working hours" that are hindering men's participation in housework and childcare. We have decided to renew the project as the "Tomoiku Project.
The Tomoiku Project aims to change the so-called "one-operator" situation in the workplace and at home, and to create a society in which all men and women can balance work and homework/child rearing in accordance with their desires and work together to raise their children. We aim to create a society in which both men and women can balance work and homework/childrearing in accordance with their wishes, and can work to "raise children together.
In particular, we will focus on approaches to "companies," mainly through educational activities to improve the employment environment and workplace culture so that many companies will actively work to create an environment conducive to "co-development" of children.
At the press conference on Friday, July 4, Shoko Hanyu (President of Hanyu Productions Co., Ltd.), chairperson of the "Tomoiku (co-education) Project" promotion committee, announced the project name and logo, explained her thoughts on the project, and introduced 11 members of the promotion committee who have experience in child rearing and knowledge in the field of "Tomoiku". She also introduced the 11 members of the promotion committee, who have experience in child rearing and knowledge in the field of "co-parenting.
Project Summary
| Project name | Tomoiku Project - No more one-operation at work and at home. Toward a society where people can work together to nurture their children. ～Tomoiku Project |
Promotion Committee Members (honorifics omitted, in alphabetical order except for the chairperson, who is listed in alphabetical order, 11 persons)
| Sachiko Hanyu, Chairperson | Author / Media Producer / President, Hanyu Productions, Inc. |
| Takaaki Okubo | Representative Director, Futaba Sports Ltd. Vice President, Nissenren Asahikawa |
| Shingo Ohata | Consultant for Work-Life Balance, Inc. |
| Atsuko Kamijo | Representative Director, NPO Mama Life Balance; Member, Nagoya City Council for Gender Equality |
| Tatsuya Sato | Representative Director, Karada Note Co. |
| Tai Taga | Professor, Faculty of Letters, Kansai University |
| Akane Tanaka | Assistant Professor, Tohoku Bunka Gakuen University |
| Kaori Hayashida | Director, NPO Fathering Japan; Representative, wonderLife LLP |
| Shota Hirano | President, Daddy Support Association |
| Hidetoshi Hironaka | President and Representative Director, IkunikuQ.com, Inc. |
| Masaki Watanabe | Editor-in-Chief, New R25 |
Project Logo
Logo Concept
It expresses that child-rearing can be a "shared responsibility" rather than a "one-operator" only when people of different colors support each other. It expresses the desire for everyone to work together to realize co-parenting, as if society as a whole were completing a single puzzle.
Examples of activities planned for the future
0Implementation of seminars and symposiums for companies
Promotion of corporate version of parents' classes (creation and distribution of training materials and videos, promotion of visualization of task sharing, etc.)
Conducted a press conference to announce the results of a survey on attitudes toward young people.
0Implementation of online seminars for individuals and young adults (reviewing the division of household chores and childcare within the family and working styles, promotion of task sharing, etc., triggered by men taking maternity leave)
(Establish an official website for the Tomoiku Project to provide tips for "Tomoiku" in the workplace and at home by posting contents, etc.), etc.
