A Vidicantive Study of Legislative Policies on Parental and Family-Care Leave

首先，日本有关育儿和家庭看护假的法律制度已从1991年相对简单的《育儿假法》逐渐演变为现在的形式，包含了各种内容，如强制性家庭看护假、休假期间就业保险基金的福利、对夜间工作和加班的特别限制、免受不利待遇的保护、雇主努力允许休假照顾生病儿童的责任、雇主照顾工人的义务等等。尽管这种变化具有不可否认的优点，但有时很难看出立法的基本精神和政策。这在一定程度上解释了许多工作场所对这一主题的边缘兴趣。第二，通过研究德国和美国的制度，我们发现了这一主题的两种截然不同的方法。德国制度的特点是“儿童保育”的保护，这使雇员有资格休假长达3年，并从政府获得儿童保育福利。另一方面，美国制度的特点是每年最多12周的适度无薪休假以及灵活性，使雇员能够为了照顾孩子或家庭照顾甚至自己的疾病而休假。这将使我们重新审视日本法律关于育儿假和家庭看护假的立场。

Included among the findings of this research are the following points.First, Japanese legal scheme regarding child-care and family-care leave has evolved gradually from the relatively simple Child-Care Leave Law of 1991 to the present form, incorporating a variety of contents such as mandatory family-care leave, benefits during the leave from the employment insurance fund, special limits on night work and overtime, protection against unfavorable treatments, employers' duty to make efforts to allow leave to take care of sick children, employers' duty to care in placement of workers, etc. Despite its undeniable merits, this variety sometimes makes it difficult to see the basic spirit and policy of the legislation. This partly explains the peripheral interest in the subject in many workplaces.Second, by studying German and American systems, we identified two contrasting approaches towards this subject. German system is characterized by the protection of "child care," which qualifies the employee to leave up to 3 years and to child care benefits from the government. American system, on the other hand, is characterized by its modest unpaid leave up to 12 weeks a year as well as its flexibility, which enables the employee to take the leave either for child-care or for family care or even for his/her own sickness. This will lead us to reexamine the position of Japanese law regarding the child-care leave and the family-care leave.