Nearly 40 percent of Japanese women with young children do not expect their husbands to take part in parenting activities, according to a survey conducted by toy maker Bandai Co.
The survey asked 2,000 women with children to list which parenting duties they wanted their husbands to shoulder.
The largest group, 38.7 percent, said "nothing in particular," according to Bandai.
The second-largest group, or 12.1 percent, said they wanted their spouses to play with the kids, while 10.5 percent wanted them to bathe the children. The fourth-largest group, at 6.8 percent, wanted their husbands to put the children to bed.
When asked to list what parenting jobs their husbands already do, 52.6 percent said their spouses give the children baths, while 17.6 percent said their husbands play with them.
"The survey results suggest that women want their husbands to look after the children while they are doing housework, rather than wanting the men to take part in child-care activities regularly," a Bandai spokesman said.
The survey was conducted in September -- mainly over the Internet -- on 1,000 mothers of girls and 1,000 with boys.