Japan Introduced 'Grandchild Childcare Special Leave' 20 Years Ago
Europe Including Hungary and Germany Also Operates Grandparent Childcare Leave
South Korea Preparing Support Measures for Twilight Childcare
Local Governments Provide Financial Support Instead of Leave or Time Off
As twilight childcare, where grandparents directly take care of their grandchildren, rapidly increases, voices are emerging calling for the provision of parental leave or vacation for so-called 'Halma (grandmother mom)' and 'Halppa (grandfather dad)' or government subsidies. In Japan, which, like Korea, is struggling with low birth rates, a system providing childcare leave to grandparents was introduced 20 years ago, and European countries such as Hungary and Germany also operate systems allowing grandparents responsible for childcare to take leave.
Go See Your Grandchildren... Japan’s Local Governments and Companies Offer Special Leave
According to a compilation of Japanese foreign media including the Nihon Keizai Shimbun on the 23rd, Kanagawa Prefecture will provide special leave to employees with grandchildren starting next month. Related ordinances were revised to allow male employees to use leave for grandparents as well as for spouses immediately after childbirth, enabling up to 3 days of leave at childbirth and up to 5 days during childcare.
Okayama City will also introduce a system from next month allowing employees to use special leave tailored to the growth stages of their grandchildren. Paid leave of 3 days will be provided around the day the grandchild is born, and unpaid leave of up to 6 months can be taken until the grandchild turns 3 years old. There was a case in the past where an employee resigned to care for grandchildren, and it was judged that introducing such a system could prevent the resignation of veteran employees.
Many local governments in Japan have introduced systems allowing grandparent employees engaged in childcare to use special leave. In January last year, Miyagi Prefecture became the first prefecture-level local government to introduce grandchild leave, allowing special leave of 3 days. Through this, 13 grandparents used 22 days of leave from January to August last year alone. In February of the same year, Koriyama City in Fukushima Prefecture also introduced this system, with 45 people using special leave in the past year.
The first place in Japan to introduce grandparent childcare leave was the private company Dai-ichi Life Insurance. In October 2006, the company provided 3 days of special leave for grandchild care, allowing employees to take up to 9 days off including holidays and weekends. As a result, more than 1,500 employees used this leave in 2022, 16 years after its introduction.
On the 7th, under clear spring weather without fine dust, a grandmother is stopping a child from jumping into the fountain at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@
In addition, major food company Ezaki Glico started providing special leave to employees with grandchildren in March 2019, which can also be used to attend events such as sports days. Satake, Japan’s largest grain processing equipment manufacturer, also offers leave that can be taken consecutively for 3 days within 10 days of a grandchild’s birth. Various industries including Okinawa Financial Group and Fukuyaken Construction provide grandchild care leave for grandparents.
Grandparents’ Retirement Age Extended, Dual-Income Children Increasing
The reason why Japanese local governments and companies provide special leave to grandparents is interpreted as the extension of retirement age due to aging, resulting in more employees simultaneously working and caring for grandchildren. The retirement age for local government employees in Japan is gradually being extended to 65 by 2031.
Like Korea, many children in Japan are from dual-income families, and more than half receive childcare help from grandparents. According to the 2021 Basic Survey on Birth Trends by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research in Japan, 58% of first children born between 2015 and 2018 received childcare support from grandmothers until they turned 3 years old. The rate of childcare help from grandfathers was 32%.
Given this situation, grandparental childcare leave has emerged from the perspective that childcare should be viewed as a family issue. Although it is more like a short leave of 3 to 5 days rather than a long-term leave of several months, it can be used on special days such as the day of a grandchild’s birth or when the child’s parents cannot find someone to take care of the child, resulting in high satisfaction among users.
Junji Miyabara, head of the D&WLB Promotion Department at Toray Management Research Institute, said in an interview with Asahi Shimbun, "As the number of dual-income households increases, the demand for grandparental participation in childcare is expanding, and with the extension of retirement age, the number of employees with grandchildren has increased. From a corporate perspective, it can appeal to employees through flexible work styles, so it is expected that more companies will introduce this system in the future."
Grandparents Can Take Several Months of Childcare Leave in Australia, Germany, and Others
There are countries that provide grandparents with several months of childcare leave. Australia is a representative country that legislated grandparent leave. Both parents and grandparents can use childcare leave without special conditions. Although it is basically unpaid leave, if the primary caregiver is a grandparent, the government also provides childcare support payments.
In Europe, the right to use childcare leave is sometimes granted to the person actually caring for the child. According to a report titled ‘Activation of Paternal Childcare Leave Use and Securing System Flexibility’ released last month by the National Assembly Legislative Research Office, Lithuania amended its law in April 2018 to allow grandparents to use childcare leave if they are workers who have paid social security taxes for a certain period. As a result, more than 500 grandparents used childcare leave for grandchildren in 2018 alone. Hungary also allowed grandparents caring for grandchildren on behalf of working parents to use childcare leave and receive pay starting in 2020.
Some countries recognize grandparental childcare leave when parents have disabilities or cannot directly care for their children due to unavoidable reasons. In Germany, if parents are seriously ill or disabled and cannot raise their children directly, grandparents are granted eligibility to receive childcare leave benefits. Portugal allows it only when grandchildren are minors or disabled and parents cannot care for them. In Finland, if the biological mother of a newborn dies and the other parent cannot care for the child, childcare leave benefits are paid to grandparents or others who actually care for the child.
What About Korea? Local Governments Take Monetary Support Measures by Providing Care Allowances to Grandparents
Support measures for twilight childcare by grandparents are also emerging one after another in Korea. It is reported that the government is reviewing a plan to provide limited childcare leave to grandparents when parents cannot directly care for their children, but for now, local governments are first implementing monetary support rather than leave or vacation.
Seoul City started the ‘Seoul-type Childcare Allowance’ system in September last year, providing 300,000 won per month to grandparents caring for grandchildren. It supports families raising 2-year-old infants (24 to 36 months) residing in Seoul who have difficulty directly caring for children due to parenting gaps such as dual-income households and whose income is below 150% of the median income. Seoul City is considering abolishing the income criteria and extending the support period from the current maximum of 36 months to up to 48 months.
The grandparent care allowance system, first introduced in Gwangju in 2011, has recently been rapidly expanding to Gyeonggi Province, Incheon, and others. This is because as the low birth rate problem worsens and work-family balance becomes a key issue, the view that compensation is needed for grandparents filling the childcare gap is gaining strength. Local governments that already had related systems are expanding the target and duration of support.
However, there are mixed views regarding providing leave, childcare leave, or care allowances to grandparents for twilight childcare. While some positively evaluate it as partial compensation for care labor that was previously unpaid, others criticize it as shifting the responsibility of care labor onto grandparents.
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