The percentage of male corporate workers in Japan who took childcare leave hit a record high in fiscal 2023.

Japan's labor and welfare ministry conducted its annual survey last October. Some 3,400 businesses responded.

The paternity childcare leave acquisition rate in the business year that ended in March was 30.1 percent, up 13 points from the previous fiscal year. Both the acquisition rate and the margin of increase were record highs. The rate in 2019 was just 7.48 percent.

The Japanese government aims to raise the paternity childcare leave acquisition rate to 50 percent by 2025.

The percentage of women who took childcare leave was 84.1 percent, up 3.9 points.

The paternity childcare leave acquisition rate was 34.2 percent at businesses with 500 or more employees and 31.1 percent at those with 100 to 499 employees.

The rate at businesses with five to 29 employees was 26.2 percent.

While more than 90 percent of women were on leave for six months or longer, 37.7 percent of men were off work for less than two weeks.

Ministry officials say businesses are now obliged to confirm whether employees who report pregnancy or childbirth would like to take childcare leave, and this may have led to the increase in the acquisition rate.

They plan to bolster measures, such as by mandating businesses to raise the childcare allowance rate, and to publicize the percentage of male workers who took childcare leave.