Recent research findings from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare revealed that, “full-time employees make up the largest single group of married women in Japan who have given birth.”
Recent research findings from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare revealed that, “full-time employees make up the largest single group of married women in Japan who have given birth.”
These surprising results are from the fourth ‘Survey of 21st Century Adult Population Demographics’, a research report that summarizes the responses of around 19,000 males and females who were within the age group 20–34 at the end of October 2002. Analyzing the results by employment type revealed that the birth rate of full-time employees at 33.1% was higher than both non–full-time employees (16.3%) and even non-working housewives (30.9%).
The report concludes that, “this may be because full-time employees can take advantage of childcare leave provided by their companies and have the advantages of a stable household and a regular salary.”
A 32-year old former contract reporter for a leading media company who left her job when her child was born explains that, “more companies now provide day care centers and more companies are taking steps to make sure that the careers of their female employees aren't affected when they take childcare leave. For women working at these companies, it's actually easier to have children than it is for many other women – working or not.”
The declining birth rate is a serious issue in Japan, and it has been argued that the social advances made by women, as well as trends toward later marriages and increasing participation in higher education, have all contributed to the current low rate. But the fact that full-time working women are having more children than their non–full-time and non-working counterparts would seem to contradict at least the assertion that social advances are partly responsible. Indeed, encouraging more women to take up full-time employment may even be a way to address the problem.
There are now around 17 million non–full-time employees in Japan. These part-timers, contract employees and temps account for up to a third of the entire workforce, and how to encourage them to move into full-time employment is rapidly becoming an important issue for the country and the economy.
Some 60% of women in Japan leave their jobs either before or after they give birth, and subsequent childcare responsibilities often make it difficult for them to return. This explains why the labour rate of women in their 30s – at around 60% – is lower than that of both younger and older women.
As the economy grows and Japan's labour shortage continues, some companies in the financial and manufacturing sectors are recruiting women in their 20s and 30s that have never entered the labour market before, and are re-hiring women who have left the labour market to have children. The problem of low and declining birth rates may in part be solvable if other companies – both small and medium-size enterprises as well as large corporations – follow this lead.