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Support for Working Parents: Government Policies and Corporate Responses in Japan

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Abstract

The falling birth rate is one of the problems of greatest public concern in Japan in recent years. While support for working parents is widely recognized as a key solution for this problem, the government has not adopted strict regulation, but tried to attract voluntary support from employers. To discuss the effect of such ‘soft regulation’, we identify characteristics to explain the responsiveness of firms to such an institutional demand. Using a data set of about 750 Japanese firms compiled from several sources, we conducted factor analysis to identify factors underlying firms' support for working parents, and then examined the association of those factors with various firm characteristics by regression analysis. As a result, progressiveness and time-flexibility are identified as the underlying factors. While they are positively associated with firm size, degree of foreign ownership and attention to corporate social responsibility, there are significant differences in the pattern of association with several characteristics regarding the presence of female workers and the participation of labour unions. Difference across business sectors is also significant.

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Notes

  1. For details of the episode of ‘birth-giving machines’, see The Independent, 29 January 2007, for example.

  2. Parental leavers may obtain 30 per cent of salary when they take leave. The additional 10 per cent is paid after they return and work for 6 months.

  3. The survey also included questions about the adoption of satellite offices and paid parental leave, but the understanding of those arrangements seemed quite different across firms. For example, some firms identified satellite office with distant work treatment, others as an ordinary branch. Some firms confused paid parental leave with ordinary paid leave, which all workers receive as a basic legal entitlement. Consequently, we decided to exclude those arrangements from the analysis.

  4. It may be better to distinguish on-site childcare service and allowances from off-site childcare services, given that the former is generally much more costly for employers than the latter. This is impossible, however, because the survey failed to distinguish them.

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Acknowledgements

The survey data were provided in electric form by Toyokeizai Shinposha. Interviews with firms were conducted for a project sponsored by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. We thank them for their permission to use relevant information.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1-9-1 Eifuku Suginami-ku, Tokyo, 168-8555, Japan

    Kenji Suzuki

  2. Hitotsubashi University, 2-1, Naka, Kunitachi-shi, Tokyo, 186-8601, Japan

    Kanji Tanimoto

  3. Fujitsu Research Institute, 1-16-1, Kaigan, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 105-0022, Japan

    Naoki Atsumi

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  1. Kenji Suzuki
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  2. Kanji Tanimoto
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  3. Naoki Atsumi
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Appendix

Appendix

See Table A1.

Table a1 Sectoral profile of interviewed firms
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Suzuki, K., Tanimoto, K. & Atsumi, N. Support for Working Parents: Government Policies and Corporate Responses in Japan. Asian Bus Manage 7, 297–319 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1057/abm.2008.12

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