Why do Japanese men want to avoid childcare leave so much?…The cruelty of “seniority personnel appointments” that doesn’t allow even those with low evaluations to quit midway through | PRESIDENT WOMAN Online

According to UNICEF, Japan ranks first among developed countries in terms of its childcare leave system for fathers. However, the acquisition rate remains low at 17%. What is preventing men from taking childcare leave? We would like to bring you a conversation between Tsuguo Ebihara, a hired journalist who published “Declining Birthrate: The Silent Claims of Women’s Sexuality,” and Kitaro Enatsu, an associate professor at Kobe University’s Institute of Economics and Management.

Definitive difference in “seniority” between Japan and the world

[Ebihara]First, let me say that “Japanese common sense is Western common sense.” The core of this is how special it is that “the longer you work, the higher your salary” is. A labor economist named Kazuo Koike, who has since passed away, showed that in Japan, Europe, and the United States, salaries increase based on seniority.

Yes, there is certainly a seniority curve when looking at the average salary of white-collar workers anywhere in the world. But there are two major differences. One is that the seniority curve in Europe and America is gentler than in Japan. Another reason is that in Japan, all full-time employees follow the same seniority curve, but in Europe and the United States, the salary ranges for some elite employees and others differ greatly.

French class society

For example, in France there is a small group of elites called Cardres who graduated from elite training schools called Grandes Ecoles, but they are in their late 20s and earn 40,300 euros (approximately 6.15 million yen when 1 euro is 150 yen), and 50 In the latter half of the decade, it costs 77,000 euros (11.5 million yen). On the other hand, people in the mid-career class who graduated from regular universities earn 30,000 euros (4.5 million yen) in their late 20s, and 41,000 euros (6.15 million yen) in their 50s.

By the way, in Western Europe such as France, “qualifications” are required to get into any profession. Bakers and greengrocers are also required to have these qualifications. Appropriate educational background and vocational training are required to obtain the qualification. In this way, people who work after obtaining qualifications and are called “qualified workers” earn 25,000 euros (3.75 million yen) when they are young and remain at 28,000 euros (4.2 million yen) even in their late 50s. It is truly a class society, where each person has a fixed job and stays within a pay range appropriate to that job. It is very unlikely that the working class will simply move up the ranks and end up in intermediate positions or cards without re-entering university or acquiring qualifications.