1) Strengthening the Equal Employment Opportunity Law

2) Revision of Labour Standards Law

1) Activities to raise the level of awareness of the revised Law

The Ministry of Labour has been conducting activities to raise the level of awareness in order to promote an understanding of the purpose of the Equal Employment Opportunity Law and to ensure equal treatment of men and women. With the revised law scheduled to come into force in 1999, the Ministry of Labour will continue to conduct awareness-raising activities on various occasions, including during the Equal Employment Opportunity Month in June, to make the revised law well known to employers and employees and realize the smooth operation of personnel management in line with the revised law.

2) Administrative guidance and assistance to settle individual dispute

The Prefectural Women's and Young Workers�fOffice has been providing administrative guidance to employers by visiting their offices under visiting plan to promote the compliance with the Equal Employment Opportunity Law.

The Ministry of Labour is also promoting speedy and smooth settlement of individual disputes between women workers and employers over the handling of equal employment opportunity through appropriate advice, guidance and recommendation by the Director of the Prefectural Women's and Young Workers' Office or through the smooth operation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Mediation Commission.

3) Promotion of positive action by corporations for full utilization of women workers' abilities and skills

The Ministry of Labour has worked out guidelines and a worksheet to promote positive actions by corporations and hold seminars targetting business leaders to realize equal employment opportunities not only in systems but also in practice (See Article 4). The Ministry of Labour intends to have positive actions by corporations deeply rooted in society as a developed version of the Voluntary Checkup Promotion Campaign (explained in the second periodic report) which have been conducted since FY 1988 that was designed to make the purpose of the Law fully known to every corporation and encourage corporations to voluntarily improve their personnel management.

4) Actions to remove the glass ceiling

Since the Equal Employment Opportunity Law came into force, there has been an improvement in the personnel management for women, in women workers' awareness, and in general understanding of equality between men and women in the workplace. However, women's participation in decision making at individual corporations and labour and management organizations remains feeble and this is believed to be one of the reasons for little awareness on the part of corporations and organizations to utilize women.

The Ministry of Labour conducted"International Exchange Program to Remove the Glass Ceiling" for three years starting in FY 1995, a program designed to promote an understanding of the parties concerned with regard to the appointment of woman managers and involvement of women in decision making at labour and management organizations through interchanges between representatives of the Japanese Government, labour and management, and their counterparts in other advanced countries.

5) Administrative guidance for appropriate operation of the multiple truck personnel management system

Under the multiple truck personnel management system, several trucks are set up according to, for example, whether the job is planning-type or routine-type or whether the job is subject to transfer requiring a change of abode, and personnel management such as assignment, promotion, education/training is carried out according to the truck.

In view of the fact that some corporations implemented different management for men and women under the name of multiple truck personnel management, the Ministry of Labour announced "Desirable Ways to Implement a multiple truck Personnel Management" in 1991 to ensure clear definition of each truck and operation method, implementation of fair recruitment and employment screening, openness of the trucks for both men and women, establishment of a system allowing employees to switch trucks, and fair personnel management for men and women. (The Ministry of Labour provides administrative guidance so that employment management is conducted in line with the above announcement.)

1) Revision of Child Care Leave Law

"A bill to revise part of the laws concerning Child Care Leave" designed to establish a family care leave scheme was enacted on June 5, 1995 and promulgated on June 9, the same year. As a result, the Child Care Leave Law was renamed the Child Care and Family Care Leave Law which is designed to support workers who are caring for family members to fulfill their responsibility in work as well as in the family.

2) Establishment of child care leave benefit

Since April 1995, a child care leave benefit system has been in force under which an employee who takes child care leave will be paid 20% of the employee's wage before taking such a leave as the basic child care leave benefit if the employee meets the requirements set forth in the Employment Insurance Law. If an employee eligible for the basic benefit is employed after child care leave by the same employer for more than six months, the employee will be paid a return-to-work benefit in the amount of 5% of the wage before the leave multiplied by the number of leave months.

3) Establishment of family care leave benefit (slated for implementation from April 1999)

It is planned that starting in April 1999 an employee who takes family care leave will be paid in principle 25% of the employee's wage before the family care leave as a family care leave benefit if the employee meets the requirements set forth in the Employment Insurance Law.

4)Promotion of early introduction of family care leave scheme

The Government is promoting early introduction of a family care leave system and other measures including shortening of working hours for family care by offering consultation and guidance to employers and employees and by providing subsidies.

5) Putting child care leave system firmly in enterprises

According to the "Basic Survey on Women Workers' Employment Management" implemented by the Ministry of Labour in FY1996, the ratio for child-bearer to take child care leave in the workplace with provision of child care leave scheme was 44.5 percent for women, and 0.16 percent for men with child-bearer as their spouses, and the ratio of taking the leave for women was 99.2 percent, and 0.8 percent for men. The Government promotes child care leave and the measures to shorten the working hours for child care through counseling and giving guidance to the employer and women and men employees or by providing child care allowance.

1) Building and reconstruction of day-care centers

Under the Child Welfare Law, the Government provides subsidies to those who build, expand, or reconstruct and operate day-care centers. Under the Child Allowance Law, the Government also provides subsidies to those employers who set up and operate day-care facilities in their business establishments. As a result, there are now roughly enough numbers of day-care facilities in Japan, although in some areas of the country, the number of children on the waiting list far exceeds the number of children enrolled.

2) Nursing measures that meet nursing demand

The Government adopted in 1994 "Basic Ideas to Promote Measures Urgently Needed for Nursing" (five-year emergency measures for nursing) to meet diversifying demands for nursing brought about as a result of an increase in the number of working women, and to promote compatibility of work and child care. In 1995, the Government began to promote baby nursing (nursing of zero-aged babies) and extended nursing (nursing after 6 p.m.).

3) Review of nursery policies

The Child Welfare Law was revised in 1997 to re-examine nursery policies and other measures with a view to create an environment conducive to nursing and to assist sound growth and independence of children of fatherless families.

With a rise in the number of dual-income families, it is now common for such families to use day-care centers. Diversifying work styles, meanwhile, demand diversified child care such as the nursing of infants, extension of nursing hours and temporary nursing (providing emergency or short-time nursing). It is therefore necessary to establish a system that can provide high-quality nursing services to meet flexibly the diversifying demand.

Nursing fees are set in accordance with children's age after taking into account the impacts on family budgets of collecting fees on the basis of nursing costs. Previously, nursing fees were set on the basis of income taxes paid by the guardian of children in the preceding year etc.

1) Measures to enable taking child care and family care leave and to return to work

The employees who take child care leave will be paid a benefit worth 25% of their wages before the leave. (As to the creation of child care leave benefits, see 10. Article 11 2. (c) 2).) In addition, the Government has changed the "Subsidies for the Implementation of Programs to Facilitate the Return to Work after Child Care Leave," which was reported in the third periodic report, into "Subsidies for the Implementation of Programs to Facilitate the Return to Work after Child Care and Family Care Leave," in line with the legislation of family care leave, to make it easy for workers to take child care or family care leave and to return to work.

2) Measures to enable workers caring for children or other family members to continue work

In addition to making use of the subsidy for company nurseries, which was reported in the third periodic report, the Government began to provide subsidies in October 1995 to those employers who extend financial assistance to employees receiving child care or family care services with a view to maintaining such workers' continued employment.

The Ministry of Labour expanded the "2020 Telephone Service," a project to assist employment of working women through providing information and advice on available child care and family care services on the telephone, into 25 areas as of 1997. In 1995, the Ministry of Labour began holding seminars targetting to workers who may have to take care of children or other family members while continuing work in order for such workers to acquire useful knowledge and be prepared to make child care or family care compatible with work. In FY 1994, it began "Family Support Center" projects to organize local membership clubs composed of those who extend child care assistance and those who want to receive such services in order to meet irregular or fluctuating demand for child care that the existing day-care centers cannot cope with such as a sudden need to work overtime and illness of children.

3) Measures to help find re-employment for workers who retired for child care or family care

The Government continues to promote introduction of a re-employment system by providing subsidies to employers who re-employ workers who retired work for reasons of pregnancy, childbirth, child care or family care.

The Government holds seminars, provides information and extends assistance for self-promotion to those workers who retired to take care of children or other family members so that they can resume work smoothly.

In addition, the Government helps women to find re-employment by offering detailed advice and information on jobs available at women's public employment security offices (Lady's Hello Work).