Good News for Japan's Young Families?
Many Japanese women who want to work after giving birth are stymied by a matrix of government rules and private-sector policies that block access to government child care. Has change really come to women in Japan?
The Washington Post reports: “Rolling out Japan’s largest-ever economic stimulus plan, Prime Minister Taro Aso gave a much-needed gift last week to young families in the world’s oldest society.
“Amid this economic crisis, it is of paramount importance that we should protect the future of our children,” he said, while more than doubling proposed spending on child care for the coming year.
But his pledge did little to alter a long-standing consensus among business groups, social scientists and parents that Japan remains stingy and unaccommodating when it comes to encouraging women to have more children.”There is more to the problem than money. Corporate discrimination against women, especially if they have children, remains rampant, despite laws that forbid it. Studies have found that many employers pressure women to quit after childbirth by moving their place of work far from their homes. Click here for the rest of the story.
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