My wife is wanting to extend her maternity leave. Our child was born in November. Its kind of hard to find a hoikuen that will take them during that time. We are hoping to extend maternity leave till maybe March/April when we can get them into one when more spots open. We have heard this is possible to extend maternity leave a bit longer.
When my wife messaged HR, she got some guilt in the message, about why would she need to do that, she’s had plenty of time off already. The information my wife requested was politely ignored. So figured it be better to ask here and get some ideas about what to do or what others have experienced about extending their maternity leave or paternity leave till March/April when they can get their kid into a kindergarten.
Can we extend our maternity and paternity leave till March/April? Do we still get paid by the government/Hello Work? How do we request it from the company? What are any laws or regulations on the situation.
Any help or advice appreciated.
5 comments
Stay mentally strong.
The goal of HR is to make people work, they don’t care about you (especially if it is a Japanese company).
Just refuse and be selfish.
What can happen ? They are understaff probable and will not fire her.
And even if they want … well, that will not goes well with the ‘discrimination’.
And the job market is clearly in favor of employee with the declining workforce.
What field is she in ?
Here’s a brochure from MHLW on who is able to extend their leave when unable to find a HoIkuEn ([link](https://jsite.mhlw.go.jp/fukuoka-roudoukyoku/content/contents/000914799.pdf))
First paragraph translated in deepl:
> However, if the applicant meets certain requirements, such as returning to work and applying for admission to a daycare center but not being admitted, the period of eligibility may be extended up to the day before the child’s turns 1.5yrs old.
Your company needs to pull the stick out of their arses and extend it. You might have to *tell* them. Write out the dates you will be extending clearly, include the day you will return to work and so on. Include the reasoning too. It does look like there’s a form that need to be filled in (attached link).
Hopefully someone else knowledgeable can help with more information too.
*Rant*
>!
This kind of bullshit pisses me off so much. The “don’t cause trouble for others” culture is so oppressive that they make parents feel bad for starting families. When I extended my leave, I *told* them I was extending it instead of asking and it’s precisely because of inane, bumbling cunts like your wife’s HR department. It gave me some small pleasure to see them squirm and try to reprimand me, “in Japan we ask permission to take leave.” Well, I’ve tried the ‘ask permission’ method numerous times before and time and time again the ‘ask forgiveness’ method wins out. The company isn’t going to put my family first so why should I let some suit with more sand than empathy between their ears to decide the outcome for me?
I haven’t done it, but some of my friends extended childcare leave (not maternity) from 1 to 1.5 year, not sure about paternity one tho. It also depend on the company but I believe by standard law you should be able to take childcare leave for at least 1.5 years (in some cases can be up to 2 years), but you cant “ask” to extend, instead you have to proof that you failed to get your child into a hoikusho before he/she turns 1 (e.g your child is not chosen for lottery, not failing it purposely). So if you ask to extend without this written proof called 保育所の入所不承諾通知書 issued by your local kuyakusho or shiyakusho they will surely guilt trip you because you seemed didnt put effort to search for houikusho.
I heard allowance paid by HW will be around 60% of wife salary for first 6 months, and 50% from 7th months until 2 years.
Most HR dont understand the HW/govt institution process, so its better to go to your kuyakusho or hellowork and ask for kosodate goannai, they will first recommend you nintei hoikuen to apply to, and once you failed they will issue the proof, then you can report it to HR and the process will ensue.
Sorry it’s in Japanese but you can check more details
[here](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://jsite.mhlw.go.jp/fukuoka-roudoukyoku/content/contents/000914799.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwi_rOOE0L35AhWaAYgKHWlLD8EQFnoECAsQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3zHWAY9X3adLf2DNCxuff0)
You can extend child care leave for 6 months, and a second six months, for a total of up to one year’s extension, but you have to be able to document that you are unable to find a daycare facility – this requires documentation from your municipal office that there are no facilities available to you.
Japanese media owned by the oligarchs: “WhY Do wE HaVe SuCh a LoW BiRtHRate?!!!? So MyStERy, WOw!”