Health minister Chikara Sakaguchi has submitted to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi a set of measures to deal with the nation's declining birthrate, including steps to have more men take paternity leave.
Under the plan, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry hopes to raise the proportion of men taking paternity leave to 10 percent from 0.4 percent in fiscal 1999. The new target for women taking maternity leave is 80 percent.
Koizumi told Sakaguchi Friday it is important to come up with concrete measures that would lead workers to take child-care leave, and suggested that the elderly be enlisted to help with child-rearing. Sakaguchi asked the government to promote child-care leave measures to companies and local governments.