Largest business lobby in Japan calls for more female worker support

The Japanese Trade Union Confederation, also known as Keidanren, will be urging member firms to provide more support for female employees in the workforce in the upcoming wage talks. 

Keidanren aims to reduce the number of women who are forced to quit their jobs to care for their children or nursing care for their parents, and increase the number of female directors and section chiefs, reports The Yomiuri Shimbun.

It also aims to address the issue of “double work” — female employees taking care of both childcare and nursing their parents. 

Keidanren is requesting top management to include a policy for female employees to balance work and childcare, and to create a workplace environment that makes it easy for workers to take leave and return to work, based on a draft of a committee report that will be released in January.

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The draft report also called for the improvement and expansion of systems to provide temporary allowances and setting up career consultation services, in order to encourage women who have been away from the workplace for a long time to return to work.