Why have paternity leave in Japan if dads don’t help out?

Almost a third of Japanese mothers report that their partners do little to help out around the house while they’re on paternity leave

The figures are perhaps unsurprising given Japanese men do less housework than their counterparts in any other developed country

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Japanese government data indicates the more time a husband spends on housework and childcare on days off, the more likely his wife is to have another child. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 11:00am, 26 Jan 2020Updated: 11:00am, 26 Jan 2020

The Japanese government has been pushing for fathers to take paternity leave as the country faces a demographic crisis, yet a new wrinkle has emerged. Almost one-third of mothers report that their partners do little to help out around the house while they’re off work.

Of 508 mothers with at least one child, 32 per cent said their husbands did less than two hours of housework or childcare per day during paternity leave, according to a new survey released by Mamari, a motherhood information portal. About 20 per cent of the mothers reported that their husbands did more than eight hours of work.

The mothers responding said they often ended up doing housework themselves or that their husbands used some of the time to have fun.

The gender imbalance of household duties in Japan has received worldwide attention. While 71 per cent of Japanese women aged 15 to 64 today have paying jobs, compared with 60 per cent in 2012, men’s contributions in the household has not kept pace.

Japan’s environment minister Shinjiro Koizumi recently made headlines by becoming the first sitting cabinet member to take paternity leave following the birth of his son this month. Photo: AFP

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.