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

本研究的发现包括以下几点。首先，日本关于育儿和育儿假的法律制度从1991年相对简单的《育儿假法》逐渐演变为目前的形式，其中包含了各种内容，如强制性育儿假、休假期间从就业保险基金获得的福利、对夜间工作和加班的特殊限制、对不利待遇的保护、雇主有责任努力允许休假以照顾生病的儿童。雇主安置工人的责任等。尽管有其不可否认的优点，但这种多样性有时使人们难以看到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次要兴趣。其次，通过研究德国和美国的系统，我们确定了两种截然不同的方法来解决这个问题。德国制度的特点是对“儿童保育”的保护，这使员工有资格离开长达3年的时间，并从政府获得儿童保育福利。另一方面，美国的制度的特点是每年最多12周的无薪假期，以及它的灵活性，这使得员工可以请假照顾孩子或照顾家庭，甚至他/她自己生病。这将促使我们重新审视日本法律关于育儿假和家庭照顾假的立场。

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.