Banker’s Lawsuit Exposes Japan’s Paternity Leave Problem

(Bloomberg) -- The case of a Canadian banker in Tokyo who says he was fired for taking paternity leave highlights the mismatch between Japan’s push to boost a faltering birthrate and cultural norms that punish those who appear to put family before work.

Glen Wood, who testified at trial this week, is suing Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. for what he says was unfair treatment -- a claim the company contests. He is among a tiny minority of male workers who took paternity leave in Japan, which ranks among the most generous in the developed world.

Fathers can take as much as a year off, but being away for that long to help with a child is seen as a taboo. Only 6% of fathers take paternity leave, and among those who do, about 60% are back at their desks within two weeks, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. By contrast, more than 80% of working women who give birth take leave, and most of them only return 10-18 months later.

That’s a problem for a country trying to stave off a demographic crisis while keeping women in the labor force to compensate for an aging population. People aged 65 or over make up more than 28% of the population, and that is forecast to rise to more than 38% by 2065, while the population shrinks.

Wood, a single parent whose son was born in October 2015, claims that his requests to take paternity leave were rejected until December of that year after he took a DNA test to prove he was the father. When he returned to work the following March, Wood says he was stripped of his responsibilities and demoted.

Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley spokeswoman Yu Tanigaki said Thursday it’s the company’s understanding that there was no harassment and the firm has previously dismissed Wood’s claims as “groundless.”

Home Time

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe threw his support behind a campaign to get women into 30% of management positions in all fields by 2020 -- a target he is nowhere near reaching. His own cabinet boasts only two women out of a total of 20 ministers.

Even so, the push to get men to take paternity leave may have a powerful new backer: the country’s most popular politician Shinjiro Koizumi, who became one of Japan’s youngest-ever cabinet ministers when he was given the environment portfolio last month. Koizumi has said he will consider taking paternity leave when his pregnant wife gives birth in a few months, which would be a first for a cabinet member.

Government data indicates one way to turn the tide on the baby drought may be by divvying up domestic duties. The more time a husband spends on housework and childcare on days off, the more likely his wife is to have another child, according to a welfare ministry survey.

While 71% of Japanese women aged 15-64 now do paid work, compared with 60% in 2012, men’s contributions in the household have not kept pace. Japanese men do less housework than their counterparts in any other developed country, while Japanese women get less sleep than any of their counterparts, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

To contact the reporters on this story: Isabel Reynolds in Tokyo at ireynolds1@bloomberg.net;Emi Nobuhiro in Tokyo at enobuhiro@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Jon Herskovitz, Daniel Ten Kate

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.