This is partially a rant post and also a call for advice on what we should do. My wife is Japanese and works a relatively decent civil servant role at the prefecture office. Once she began to show, we both announced to our respective offices that we are expecting a baby and would be requesting some time off to raise it. I'm taking a couple of weeks of unpaid leave, which my office was glad to provide me.
Here's where it gets shitty. Initially, my wife's department head was upset but at least understanding that she would need to take the three months of 産休. After all, it's in my wife's contract that she is entitled to it and that she will also be able to receive 60% of her salary during that time. The chief did make a comment about how "this is why we shouldn't hire young women".
This weekend, however, she was sat down by her department head and told that they don't have the budget to provide her with her maternity leave. In fact, she flat out said "We will not be paying it."
Being a department of the prefectural government, they know that they must legally provide the time off, so now my wife and I are sure that they are going to ask her to save face and quit the company.
I'm livid that they would ask a pregnant woman to jeopardize her own financial support so that the government can save a few bucks. My wife understands that she needs to be a bad Japanese and decline their request, but is there anything that we should be preparing should things not go well? Has anyone had a similar experience to this?
Edit: this post is taking off and I can't reply to everyone but thank you all so much for your advice. I greatly appreciate it. I'll sit down with my wife later and go through every comment until we come up with a good plan.
by OldTaco77