Revised Child Care and Family Care Leave Law Fact-Finding Survey ~from en Japan Inc.

◆“Revised Child Care and Family Care Leave Law”: 90% awareness of the contents applicable from April 2022 and 73% awareness of the contents applicable from October 2022.
Have you heard about the “Revised Child Care and Family Care Leave Law,” which will go into effect in stages starting in April 2022? When asked, 79% of the respondents answered that they were familiar with the concept (16% were familiar with it well and 63% were familiar with only an overview). By employee size, 77% of companies with fewer than 300 employees (14% and 63%, respectively) and 84% of companies with 300 or more employees (22% and 62%, respectively) were aware of the system, indicating that awareness is higher among large companies.
With regard to the specific details that will be implemented in stages as a result of this legal revision, 73% of respondents (14% were familiar with the law and 59% were only aware of the outline) were aware of the “creation of an environment conducive to taking childcare leave, individual notification, and mandatory measures to confirm intentions,” which will be imposed on all companies from April 2022, and the “relaxation of conditions for taking childcare leave for workers with fixed-term employment. Awareness of the “creation of postnatal paternity leave (childcare leave at birth)” and “the possibility of taking childcare leave in installments” from October 2022 was also 73% (same: 19% and 54%, respectively).

However, according to a survey of 1,000 male employees by LegalForce,Inc. the following responses were obtained.
*80.4% of respondents were unaware of the revision of the Child Care and Family Care Leave Law starting in April 2022.
*79.0% of respondents did not know how to apply for childcare leave.
*32.3% of the respondents answered that it would be easier to take childcare leave if they could “secure replacement personnel” and “hold explanatory meetings for all employees”.

◆35% responded that they have a record of male employees taking childcare leave. 59% of companies with 300 or more employees have a record of male employees taking childcare leave.
Thirty-five percent of male respondents answered that they have taken childcare leave when they were asked about the use of childcare leave by gender. By company size, 26% of companies with fewer than 300 employees had taken childcare leave, while 59% of companies with 300 or more employees had taken childcare leave, indicating that more than half of the large companies had taken male childcare leave. Overall, 79% of women took childcare leave, and 73% of small and medium-sized companies with fewer than 300 employees answered that they had taken childcare leave. We found that there is a difference of more than 40 percentage points in the number of men and women who have taken childcare leave.