April 4, 2013
Many mothers in Tokyo give up taking the full amount of childcare leave they are entitled to because of competitive enrollment in public day nurseries, a recent Tokyo Metropolitan Government survey revealed.
Of working mothers who shortened their child-care leaves, nearly half did so because a daycare service they wanted to give their children would not be available if they waited until the end of their leaves.
According to the survey result, 25.4% of respondent mothers and 1.5% of fathers have taken leave to care for their children, up by 8.9 and 0.3 percentage points respectively from the previous survey five years ago.
However, there exists a wide gap between demand and reality. Of mothers who took child-care leaves, while 80.9% had wanted the length of the leave to be more than one year, only 36.5% could do so.
The reason why mothers returned to work earlier than they had planned to was because “they had to apply to day nurseries at a certain time of the year in order to have their children enter them” (46%), followed by “their employer does not grant them extensive child-rearing leaves” (41.4%), and “they worried about being unable to keep pace with changes in their jobs after a long absence.” (29.9%).
Of working mothers who shortened their child-care leaves, nearly half did so because a daycare service they wanted to give their children would not be available if they waited until the end of their leaves.
According to the survey result, 25.4% of respondent mothers and 1.5% of fathers have taken leave to care for their children, up by 8.9 and 0.3 percentage points respectively from the previous survey five years ago.
However, there exists a wide gap between demand and reality. Of mothers who took child-care leaves, while 80.9% had wanted the length of the leave to be more than one year, only 36.5% could do so.
The reason why mothers returned to work earlier than they had planned to was because “they had to apply to day nurseries at a certain time of the year in order to have their children enter them” (46%), followed by “their employer does not grant them extensive child-rearing leaves” (41.4%), and “they worried about being unable to keep pace with changes in their jobs after a long absence.” (29.9%).
