Seminars

Japan has one of the most generous parental leave policies for working parents, yet male employees remain reluctant to take leave. In 2021, only 14% of eligible Japanese fathers took at least one day of paternity leave, and conditional on taking leave, most men take less than two weeks of leave. Men’s reluctance to take paternity leave in Japan has been attributed to several factors such as the prevalence of traditional gender norms that are at odds with men taking on a caregiving role, career concerns surrounding the violation of ideal worker norms, and organizational climate and support for leave-taking. Recent work suggests that even as social norms change, individuals may actively enforce a perceived norm, even if they privately reject the norm because they incorrectly believe that most other people continue to support the norm. In such settings, information about others’ beliefs could help to address underlying misperceptions and speed up the evolution of norms.

This project aims to study the barriers to paternity leave-taking among Japanese men focusing on the role of male employee beliefs about prevailing norms surrounding paternity leave-taking, employer support for leave-taking, and the perceived career impacts of taking paternity leave. Specifically, we will examine whether Japanese men accurately perceive the social norms surrounding paternity leave-taking among various groups that likely matter, as well as employers’ perceptions of the career impacts of paternity leave-taking. We will then assess the impacts of information treatments aimed at addressing misperceptions about others’ beliefs on attitudes and willingness to take-up paternity leave.