By Yuma Ikeshita

Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. will begin a program in October requiring male employees to take about one month of childcare leave, in general, and 50,000 yen will also be provided by the firm to the employee and each of his colleagues in his department, company officials said.

It is rare in Japan for lump-sum payments to be given to a department, including the employee taking childcare leave.

The company aims to make the workplace more appealing by encouraging employees to be more involved in child-rearing and creating a culture in which employees are not put off by the possibility of temporarily taking on extra tasks.

The new policy will apply to all of the about 24,000 employees, and the payment will also be distributed when female employees take childcare leave.

SMBC's male employees have been allowed to take childcare leave for up to a year and a half. Previously, however, taking leave was only "recommended."

While 100% of eligible male employees took childcare leave in fiscal 2023, they only took an average of 12 days, falling short of the company's target of 30 days, prompting the new measures.

By also distributing payments to colleagues, the bank aims to create an environment in which the entire workplace is happy for the coworkers taking childcare leave and hopes it will lead to securing more personnel.

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This article is from The Yomiuri Shimbun. Neither Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch, Barron's nor The Wall Street Journal were involved in the creation of this content.

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September 11, 2025 21:30 ET (01:30 GMT)

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