Major retailer Aeon plans to introduce a system this year to compensate employees who take child care leave with 100% of their take-home pay until their child is up to 1 year old, sources said Thursday.

The system aims to alleviate financial concerns and encourage male employees to take child care leave.

The program, which has no age limit, will be gradually rolled out from March to some 150 companies in the group, although the starting time and the period of compensation may vary. In the first year, the firm expects about 2,000 men and women to take child care leave.