Lecture given by man on child-care leave
‘Now working part-time—on child-rearing’

After the regular Women’s Committee meeting on July 14, Toshiyuki Suzuki, the first man in the Koshigaya City office to take child-care leave, spoke about his experiences.
According to a survey on regional public service workers and child-care leave, men make up only 0.5% of those taking leave to look after their children. The Koshigaya Women’s Committee is demanding that measures be taken to increase this rate to 10%, in line with the ‘Law to promote bringing up the next generation.’ However, “management is trying to avoid committing to a figure,” comments Yumiko Nakamura, the Chair of the Women’s Committee. “But we cannot hope for an increase in men taking child-care leave unless we set a firm figure. We organised this event to let people know what wonderful experiences men have looking after their children.”
Mr. Suzuki showed photos of his son Kotaro and spoke about the joys and the trials of child-rearing.

Summary of Mr. Suzuki’s talk

I was on child-care leave from 1st April 2005 until 31st March 2006. From when my son, Kotaro was 1 year, 1 month old until when he was 2 years and 1 month old, I spent this year with him. The closest child care centre to our house accepts children from age 2. It was difficult for my wife to take all that time off work, so, without really thinking about it too seriously, I thought I would. I didn’t have any worries about my job or the housework.
So as I could start my leave smoothly, I told everyone at work that I was planning to take child-care leave, when my partner was still in the early stages of pregnancy. Even so, when I was about to put in the application, my boss said “Are you really going to do this?” I was unable to answer. I remember this well, because my boss is always so friendly and easy to work with, I was quite shocked when he said this to me. When I gave the application forms to the personnel department, the woman there said that it was the first application they’d had from a man. She seemed very happy about that. It’s great to take leave and have people at work happy about it! My co-workers in the same section as me were also very supportive. I thought that my absence would mean that there would be one less worker in my section, but an extra person was recruited to fill in while I was away, so I had no worries about my job when I was on leave.
Once my new job of child-rearing began, I found the hardest thing was feeding time. It was also hard sometimes having to be with a small child 24 hours a day. When he cried, it was very exhausting. I really felt the importance of having people around to help out. Once a week I would work out in a gym which had child-care facilities. As the title of my speech suggests, now my child-care leave has ended and part time child-care has made me much busier than before. I feel as though this is the real beginning.
My advice to people who are thinking of taking child-care leave is to start making friends with your neighbours. It’s quite hard to suddenly join in a mother’s group. It’s also important for husbands to not just ‘help’ their wives with the housework, it must be divided up equally.
People talk about creating a ‘child-rearing friendly environment,’ but I think we must look at this from a broader perspective—it’s essential to build a workplace that is comfortable and understanding. Sometimes people say to me “you’re a public servant, that’s why you can take child-care leave,” but I believe it’s important to make an example-I took child-care leave, so you can too. I hope that my example can eventually help to create a society where it is completely natural for everyone who wants to, to take child-care leave, including, of course, men.