Japanese bank implements one-month paternity leave
Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. will require its employees to take at least one month’s paternity leave in principle from October to encourage participation in child care and improve the working environment, the company said.
As part of the measures to be adopted by fiscal year 2028, the bank will pay a bonus of 50,000 yen ($335) to employees on parental leave and their colleagues if the business continues to operate stably during their absence.
Employees with children under 2 years old are subject to the paternity leave measure.
“Our goal is to eliminate gender stereotypes and establish a culture in which men taking paternity leave and participating in childcare are seen as the norm,” the bank said in a press release on Sept. 19.
It added: “We will promote initiatives to strengthen team resilience, seeing absences arising from childcare as an opportunity.”
Encouraging time off
The move comes as a growing number of Japanese companies are introducing measures to encourage staff to take time off and alleviate feelings of unfairness among those facing increased workloads.
According to a government survey, a record 40.5 percent of fathers with infants availed themselves of paternity leave in 2024.
But that percentage remained sharply lower than the 86.6 percent of mothers who took maternity leave.
