| From The Newspaper (28) Gender (4) |
March 30, 2023
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| His mother didn't work. He remembered, though, that she worked for a couple of years as a part-time worker at an office in the public sector, somewhere near their house, a national agricultural-related organization. It was when he was in junior or senior high school. He also could remember that when he was a child, his mother had a temporary job, to make something at home. That type of job was not uncommon, it was called 'nai-shoku'. His mother made a series of miniature bulbs for Christmas trees or imitation flowers. It was simple and easy work, although he didn't know how much his mother earned from the job. At that time, full-time housewives were common. Mothers raised their children, cooked three meals, washed clothes, swept the rooms, they even sewed their children's clothes, knitted their family members mufflers, sometimes sweaters. There were few ready-made foods, so they had to make dishes from scratch. So, they were busy. As times went by, washing machines spread, vacuums spread, supermarkets spread and sold ready-made foods... When he was born, his mother was 25 years old. When he was 25 years old, just  40 years ago, three years had passed since he started to work. At his workplace, a municipality office, female workers already got a certain period of paid leave, when they were pregnant and gave birth. After a certain period, they returned to the office. Maternity leave was already normal for public workers. But, for the private sector, companies, especially small companies, didn't have the capacity to give paid maternity leave for women, so they made tacit rules that female workers would quit after becoming married and/or pregnant. 40 years have passed. Now, more and more companies have mother friendly policies. He learned this time that paid leave for mothers in this country is 35.8 weeks, paid leave for fathers is 31.9 weeks. Several years ago, a lack of nursery schools became a big problem, young parents had a hard time finding nursery schools for their kids. Thanks to the government's new policies, children waiting for nursery schools decreased dramatically. In this country, because of a declining birthrate and an aging society, labor shortage has become a big problem. He simply could guess that as more people were getting older, the more nursing homes, and their workers, would be needed. Because of this, the government is aiming to make more women work under the slogan of 'Work style reform for women'. He checked on the internet. In 2015 a new law, 'Act on the Promotion of Women's Active Engagement in Professional Life' was brought into effect. A website explained about the summary of the law: [Background of the law] ・In order to solve the lack of labor shortage at present and in the foreseeable future ・There are about as many as 3 million women who want to work, but do not because of raising their children and/or (elder) family care. ・When they return to work after giving birth and child-raising, in many cases, they will be non-regular employees, preventing them from showing their ability ・In order to cope with globalization and diversity of human resources ・In order to deal with various type of harassment (maybe sexual harassment and power harassment (workplace bullying)) [The points that the government expects for women] How female workers can show their ability. <To show their ability while balancing one's work and family life> If the premise is a long hour work day/week, it will demand female workers to choose either work or family life. In the situation of balancing their work and family life, it is needed to change the long hour working style, to adopt various types of working ways. In the situation that more and more workers need to take care of their children and/or elderly people, not only women, but also men, it is important to implement worker friendly job places. (To be continued) |
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No. 515
*maternity leave :出産休暇
*tacit :暗黙の
*reform :改革
*engagement :参加、約束、婚約
*foreseeable :予見できる
*premise :前提
*adopt :採用する