Support for Egg Freezing Costs and Infertility Treatment Leave
Up to One Year of Leave and Birth Incentive Payments
10% of Those Who Underwent Infertility Treatment "Quit Because Work Was Too Difficult"
More Japanese companies are increasingly providing multifaceted support for employees' pregnancies in order to raise the proportion of female managers.
According to the Yomiuri Shimbun on the 18th, FamilyMart, Itochu Corporation, and Unicharm are partially subsidizing the cost of egg freezing for employees, while Fujifilm allows employees to take up to one year of leave for infertility treatment and related reasons.
Pola Orbis Holdings, the parent company of cosmetics firm Pola, has established an online consultation service with doctors for pregnancy-related advice. Toy manufacturer Takara Tomy offers a payment of 2 million yen (approximately 1.92 million won) to employees who give birth or adopt a child.
The Yomiuri Shimbun analyzed that the reason Japanese companies are moving to support pregnancy and childbirth is the increasing number of cases where employees resign due to infertility treatment. According to a 2023 survey by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, one out of ten people (10.9%) who have undergone infertility treatment said they quit their jobs because it was difficult to continue working. In addition, the Japanese government's aim to raise the proportion of female executives at major listed companies to 30% by 2030 is also cited as a factor behind the spread of pregnancy support initiatives among companies. As of July last year, the proportion of female executives at major Japanese listed companies was 15.6%.
The Yomiuri Shimbun reported that "many women undergoing infertility treatment are in their 30s and 40s," and that "preventing job changes is a challenge for increasing the number of female managers, but in reality, many women resign because it is difficult to balance infertility treatment, pregnancy, childbirth, childcare, and work." A representative from the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute told the Yomiuri Shimbun, "To enable employees to continue working while undergoing infertility treatment, companies need to reduce their physical and mental burdens by making it easier to take leave and use flexible work arrangements."
Japan's birth rate has been declining for nine consecutive years. According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun on the 16th, the private think tank Japan Research Institute estimated that Japan's total fertility rate (the average number of children a woman is expected to have during her reproductive years) was 1.15 last year. This is a decrease of 0.05 from 1.20 in 2023. If this estimate is correct, it would mean that Japan's total fertility rate has declined for nine consecutive years.
Earlier, preliminary demographic statistics released by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in February estimated that the number of births in Japan last year, including foreigners, was 720,988, a 5.0% decrease from the previous year. This is the lowest figure since statistics began in 1899.
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