The National Personnel Authority submitted a report to the government Wednesday requesting that public servants be granted leave to care for children aged up to 3, officials of the organization said.
The government-run organization asked the state to revise the Parental Leave Law so that public servants can take part- or full-time leave to care for children until they turn 3, compared with the current age limit of 1.
The report also asks the state to revise a law pertaining to work hours to allow public servants to take up to six months off to care for ill or elderly relatives, up from the current limit of three months.
A separate law for private firms requires companies to allow at least three months for child-rearing and nursing leave.
However, many of the 4,400 firms in the country have systems that allow workers to take nursing leave of six months or longer, according to a survey conducted by the personnel authority in October.
Considering conditions in the private sector, the government personnel agency decided to request the revisions to extend the more favorable leave allowances to public servants.
The officials recommended the new system be put into effect April 1.
The Diet has already decided to carry over to the next session deliberations on a bill to revise a child-rearing and nursing law for workers in the private sector.