News SMBC to make one-month paternity leave mandatory

SMBC announced that, starting in October, male employees with children under the age of two will be required to take at least one month of paternity leave, to create a more supportive workplace environment. As part of a broader set of initiatives to be in place by fiscal 2028, the bank also plans to offer a 50,000 yen (approximately $335) bonus to both staff members who take parental leave and their colleagues, provided that operations continue smoothly during the absence. Management noted in a press release issued on 19 September that the policy is designed to give employees sufficient time to prepare for leave while encouraging teams to view such absences as opportunities to build resilience.

The new rules follow the bank's report that, in the 2023 fiscal year, all eligible fathers took paternity leave. Even so, the average leave taken was only 12 days, well below the bank's goal of 30 days.

The move comes as a growing number of Japanese companies are introducing measures to pay allowances to colleagues of workers on parental leave, intended to encourage staff to take time off and alleviate feelings of unfairness among those facing increased workloads. According to a government survey, a record 40.5 percent of fathers with infants took paternity leave in 2024 but the percentage remained sharply lower than 86.6 percent of mothers who took maternity leave.

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