‘Pregnancy rotas’ hard to bear in Japan
Country’s declining birth rate has sparked labour shortages and women are being forced to work longer hours
Sayako had been trying to conceive a second child for two years when her boss at a Japanese daycare centre suggested she stop because she had missed her “turn”.
Sayako, who spoke using a pseudonym, learned her boss had an unwritten policy that experts say is not uncommon in Japan: an informal ‘pregnancy rota’ for employees. “Why don’t you take a break, you already have one,” her boss said, despite knowing Sayako was so keen to get pregnant that she was seeing a fertility specialist.
“I was so shocked and stunned that I couldn’t answer,” the 35-year-old told AFP.
Sayako’s boss told her that an older newly-wed at her workplace now had priority when it came to having children. She quit the job and moved to another daycare centre, recently giving birth to her second child.
The issue of “pregnancy rotas” hit the headlines earlier this year when a man wrote about his wife’s experience getting pregnant “out of turn”.
In a letter to the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, he said he and his wife had apologised to her boss at a nursery. Intersection of issues “How dare you break the rules without asking?” the boss had said, the husband recounted. The letter sparked a debate about the practice, which experts say is particularly prevalent in sectors that struggle to find and retain employees, like the daycare industry. It represents an intersection of two of Japan’s most pressing social issues: a shrinking population and the struggle women face balancing a career and family.
Forced to quit
A declining birth rate has created labour shortages, but workplaces often demand long hours and overtime — a difficult prospect for female employees in a society that often still expects women to take the lead on house work and child care. This leaves many women feeling forced to quit their jobs.
“Pregnancy rotas” have become “a normal practice at workplaces that mostly employ young female workers,” said Kanako Amano, a researcher at the NLI Research Institute.