Word: japanism
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...them lies the truth that's the salvation of many overworked fathers: namely, men who play a fuller role at home often find it energizing and cheering rather than an additional cause of exhaustion. For his children's sake, Masato Yamada took a year off from his job at Japan's Ministry of the Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), and was so delighted with the experience that he wrote a book: METI Assistant Manager Yamada is Currently on Paternity Leave. "Many people take their jobs very seriously-to the degree that they think Japan will collapse without them-and work...
...around 8.30 p.m. and falls asleep not long after. "There are very few men around me who spend as much time with their children as I do," he says. "In fact, many people are putting in more overtime [than before]." He's not wrong: the 2005 financial year was Japan's worst ever when it came to karoshi, or death from overwork, with 330 cases of people dying from work-induced heart attacks, strokes or other ailments...
...want to balance work and home is increasing," says Emiko Takeishi, a human-resources expert at Tokyo's Hosei University, "but when you take a look at figures on long working hours, or the take-up of paid leave, they're worse than before." A recent survey by Japan's Cabinet Office found that while 70% of fathers wanted to balance home and career, 23% had little or no time to spend with their children on weekdays. Some are even reluctant to take time off for the birth of their kids. In South Korea, civil servants are permitted three days...
...This may explain the varying degrees of success Asian companies have had with programs aimed at fathers. In Japan, cosmetics firm Shiseido introduced an enlightened scheme in April 2005 whereby employees with children under 3 are offered a one-time benefit of an additional two weeks of paid leave. Since the scheme's adoption, says spokesman Tatsuyoshi Endo, only 28 men have taken advantage of the offer. (At Shiseido's Tokyo head office 1,780 of the 3,300 employees are men, but the firm doesn't keep a tally of how many are fathers). Other companies are offering similarly...
...sons to some of the social functions that cram a politician's diary "so I could be with them." If successful economists and politicians can make these efforts, so can other men. Masahiro Endo, a 33-year-old father of two and a gas-station owner in Japan's Niigata prefecture, runs two websites for fathers, publishing articles with titles like "Let's Master the Three Categories of Housework." But not so long ago, he says, he was a living anachronism-the kind of father who "couldn't cook or do any kind of housework." He decided to change when...