You are entitled to four weeks of paternity leave total, which can be split into two separate periods, within 8 weeks after birth.
During this leave, you are entitled to 67% of your usual salary.
You will need to apply in advance, but you are entitled to paternity leave by law.
You are entitled to both paternity leave (IIRC, it’s called “papa kyuka”) as well as childcare leave which can be taken for an extended period on top of paternity leave. In principle, it’s your legal right to take either or both of them, but depending on how traditional your employer is, expect pushback, lies about not being eligible, or some kind of future retribution for exercising your rights and taking it.
You are entitled to it and the government has recently been pushing fathers to take it.
Companies however seem to have a different opinion. You might want to gauge your bosses attitude towards these kinds of things first.
An alternative is seeing if your boss will let you telework for a couple of days a week, or take a day here and there as PTO.
A lot will depend on what help your wife will have after birth (e.g. is grandma coming?) and her condition afterbirth (e.g. C-section, torn from here to Timbuktu?)
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When both my kids were born, my husband couldn’t take paternity leave (works a Uni, Kids born in examination periods, he too essential) as a solid block of time off. Instead his boss let him take extended lunch to visit me in hospital, and allowed him to telework if he didn’t need to be in the office once we both come home. He also was cool with my husband accompanying me to the monthly health checks, then coming into the office.
See my comments on this post, particularly **DO NOT CALL IT PATERNITY LEAVE BECAUSE YOUR COMPANY MAY TRY TO SCREW YOU**
4 comments
The law was updated just last year.
You are entitled to four weeks of paternity leave total, which can be split into two separate periods, within 8 weeks after birth.
During this leave, you are entitled to 67% of your usual salary.
You will need to apply in advance, but you are entitled to paternity leave by law.
You are entitled to both paternity leave (IIRC, it’s called “papa kyuka”) as well as childcare leave which can be taken for an extended period on top of paternity leave. In principle, it’s your legal right to take either or both of them, but depending on how traditional your employer is, expect pushback, lies about not being eligible, or some kind of future retribution for exercising your rights and taking it.
You are entitled to it and the government has recently been pushing fathers to take it.
Companies however seem to have a different opinion. You might want to gauge your bosses attitude towards these kinds of things first.
An alternative is seeing if your boss will let you telework for a couple of days a week, or take a day here and there as PTO.
A lot will depend on what help your wife will have after birth (e.g. is grandma coming?) and her condition afterbirth (e.g. C-section, torn from here to Timbuktu?)
​
When both my kids were born, my husband couldn’t take paternity leave (works a Uni, Kids born in examination periods, he too essential) as a solid block of time off. Instead his boss let him take extended lunch to visit me in hospital, and allowed him to telework if he didn’t need to be in the office once we both come home. He also was cool with my husband accompanying me to the monthly health checks, then coming into the office.
See my comments on this post, particularly **DO NOT CALL IT PATERNITY LEAVE BECAUSE YOUR COMPANY MAY TRY TO SCREW YOU**
https://old.reddit.com/r/JapanFinance/comments/12p76sd/same_pay_remote_job_or_commute_job/