Doctor Stop wrote:That's been going on for years, even before the "economic downturn". Pregnant women have always been expected to quit even though there are laws for maternity leave. Even women who marry someone the the same company are expected to quit because they might get pregnant. The changes won't change anything and may just force husband and wife to quit, upon marriage.
I don't know Doc, when I began working for the J-government, that was standard. A woman got married she was expected to quit and I heard ones who stayed on for a while after marriage, be told that this was not acceptable attitude for a proper Japanese woman. The very few who braved the harassment and stayed aboard were basically shunned. But at that time, if they got pregnant, they were done. There was no policy, or exception for maternity leave.
However, this has all changed. Few to any of the women quit on marriage and they now have up to one year authorized abscence, or a straight two month maternity leave.
I think you are only going to find the old thinking in play at small companies. However, having said that, I just heard that the government is looking at increasing complaints at labor offices around the nation about women not be supported for maternity related office problems.
The slant is that these are supposedly small companies, who claim that they cannot afford to pay an employee that isn't there.
