We knew about parental leave when a child was born. Now it’s the turn of “grandparent’s leave”! Japan offers grandfathers and grandmothers, who are not retiring, to take a few days off to take care of their grandchildren. The Asian country, exactly like Taiwan, China or South Korea, must be in the midst of a demographic crisis.
>> In Japan, the unusual “contract” that retirement homes have with babies
Over the first six months of the year, the country recorded less than 390,000 births. This is unheard of in 130 years and, over the whole of 2022, it is now likely that Japan will register fewer than 800,000 newborns. This is extremely low for a country of 125 million inhabitants. By way of comparison, Japan now has the same number of babies as France, which only has 67 million inhabitants.
The authorities are a little overwhelmed by the phenomenon: fewer babies means a rapid collapse of the population, therefore fewer workers, fewer consumers, entire regions which are emptying out and, of course, an economy which will no longer be able to grow. Many official studies have been launched to try to understand this problem and many young Japanese explain that having a baby seems insurmountable to them: either it costs too much for their low salaries, or they don’t have time with their working hours. practiced in the country.
So many reasons, therefore, which push the authorities to set up this grandparent’s leave. In Japan, there are already parental leave offers that can last up to 12 months. But, in fact, they are mainly used by mums, very rarely by dads who are either afraid or ashamed to abandon their colleagues in the office or at the factory. Currently, only 12% of employed fathers dare to take parental leave.
To help mothers – and de-stress young couples who are planning to start a family, companies and a prefecture are trying their hand at this leave. For example, from next January, civil servants in Miyagi prefecture, in the north of the country, will be able to take special paid leave to care for their grandchildren. They can put them on the day of birth or later if, for example, the little one falls ill and needs to be kept at home.
As there are no more young people, there is no more labor and employees must be asked to work longer and later. In Japan, more than 50% of people aged between 65 and 69 are still employed. Companies are therefore afraid of being abandoned by their elderly employees, who could suddenly decide to retire to help their children manage the babies. Thus, they offer them to take a little time to take care of their grandchildren, before quickly returning to the office.