Income Key to Fathers in Japan Taking Childcare Leave?

Money and Time Constraints

An online survey in Japan of married women in their twenties through fifties who work part-time found that 72.4% of the respondents with children whose husbands had never taken childcare leave said that they did not want them to take leave.

The survey was conducted by the human resources company Mynavi in February 2025, and received 1,712 responses.

Looking at the results by child’s development stage, at 37.4%, the highest percentage who said “I want (wanted) my husband to take childcare leave” were women with preschool children.

Meanwhile, when asked about the amount of freedom they had when it came to finances and time, 36% of respondents said they had “no leeway for either,” with this answer rising to 52.6% for women with preschool children.

Sekine Takahiro, a senior researcher for Mynavi’s Career Research Lab who led the survey, surmised that “it is more likely people have decided childcare leave is too difficult to take, rather than that it not being needed”, adding that “if husbands take leave, their income will drop, meaning they will have to forego financial freedom.”

Data Sources

• Survey on married women’s part time jobs (Japanese) from Mynavi.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)