Japan’s Professionals Are Quitting to Care

by

Forum Staff
in

Most companies find out an employee is caring for a parent on the day that employee resigns.

It’s usually someone in their late forties or fifties. Often a manager, or the one person who really understands a key client or process. They’ve spent months juggling hospital visits, calls from care staff and a full workload without mentioning any of it at work. Then a resignation letter arrives that seems to come from nowhere.

The Problem

Around 100,000 people a year in Japan leave their jobs to care for a family member, according to the government’s employment survey. Millions more are working while caring. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry expects around 3 million people to be working and caring at the same time by 2030, and estimates the cost to the economy at around ¥9 trillion, mostly through lost productivity among people who stay in work but struggle.

The support schemes already exist. What’s striking is how little they’re used. A 2025 survey of more than 5,000 companies found that at over half the companies where someone had quit to care for family, that person had never used caregiving leave or caregiving days off.

What the Law Now Requires

Amendments to the Childcare and Family Care Leave Act that took effect in April 2025 added several duties for all employers.

Information at age 40.
Every employee must be given information individually about caregiving leave and support, where to apply, and the caregiving leave benefit. This must happen in the fiscal year they turn 40, or in the year after their 40th birthday.

A response when someone reports a caregiving situation.
The company must explain the available schemes to that employee individually and ask whether they intend to use them.

At least one workplace measure.
This can be training, a consultation desk, sharing examples of employees who have used the schemes, or a published policy encouraging their use.

Caregiving days off from the first day.
Employees with under six months’ service can no longer be excluded.

Companies are also expected to make efforts to offer telework to employees caring for family. The existing entitlements remain: 93 days of caregiving leave per family member, which can be split into up to three blocks, and five caregiving days off a year, or ten for two or more family members.

Many companies met the new duties with an email and a PDF. That probably satisfies the law. It does very little to keep anyone.

Why People Quit Anyway

They use the leave for the wrong thing.
Caregiving leave is meant for setting up care arrangements, not for providing the care yourself. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare says this clearly, and specialists who advise companies on caregiving see the opposite happen all the time. An employee takes weeks off to look after a parent personally and becomes the main carer. Care needs rarely end within 93 days. When the leave runs out, the job goes.

They don’t tell anyone.
People who work with employee carers report that guilt is the main reason they stay quiet. Guilt about causing trouble and letting the team down, more than the care itself. Managers are often the least likely to speak up.

The work depends on them.
When one person handles something nobody else understands, they come to believe everything will stop without them. Resigning can feel more responsible than asking for help.

The first sign is easy to miss.
Caregiving often starts with a sudden crisis: a fall, a stroke, a dementia diagnosis. The first thing HR sees is usually a request for a few days off. That request is the moment to act, and it tends to go by unnoticed.

What HR Can Do

Make the first conversation count

When someone asks for time off because a parent is in hospital, treat it as the start of a caregiving situation. Explain the basic steps: apply for a care needs assessment through the local municipality, get a care manager assigned, and arrange care services. Explain that the company can support each step with time off. And suggest they don’t make any decision about their job yet.

Explain what the leave is for

Put this in the age-40 information, in manager training and in the first conversation. One way to describe it: use the first block of leave to set up care after the crisis, keep the second for when care needs change, such as a move into a care facility, and hold the third in reserve. Caregiving days off can be taken by the hour, which suits meetings with the care manager or hospital appointments.

Offer an outside channel

Employees will often tell an outside adviser things they won’t tell HR. Consider an external caregiving consultation service, and make sure people know about the local community support center run by their municipality, which is free and knows the local services.

Reduce single points of failure

Find out which tasks, clients or processes depend entirely on one person, and start cross-training before a crisis forces it. This helps with any long absence, not only caregiving, and it removes one of the main reasons people resign instead of asking for help.

Prepare managers

Managers need to know what to say when someone tells them. Listen, thank them for saying something, and point them to HR. One thing to avoid is the kind suggestion to take some time off to look after their parent. It sounds supportive, and it pushes people straight toward the mistake that ends in resignation.

Share real examples

Of the four workplace measures in the law, sharing internal examples is the one most likely to change behavior. A short, anonymous account of someone who used the leave to set up care and kept working shows everyone else that asking is safe.

Beyond that, everyday flexibility does more than any formal scheme. Telework, shorter hours and caregiving days off by the hour are unglamorous, and they are what keep people in work.

Compliance and Practice Checklist

The first four items are legal requirements. The last three go further, and make the difference in practice.

  • Do employees receive individual information on caregiving support in the year they turn 40, or the year after their 40th birthday?
  • When someone reports a caregiving situation, is there a set process to inform them individually and ask about their intentions?
  • Is at least one of the four required workplace measures in place?
  • Can employees with under six months’ service take caregiving days off?
  • Does the information explain that caregiving leave is for arranging care, not providing it?
  • Do managers know what to say, and what not to say, when an employee mentions caregiving?
  • Is telework or flexible scheduling available to carers where the job allows it?

The resignation letter shouldn’t be the first HR hears about it. The aim is to hear a year earlier, while there’s still time to set things up.

Japan’s Professionals Are Quitting to Care

by

Forum Staff
in

Most companies find out an employee is caring for a parent on the day that employee resigns.

It’s usually someone in their late forties or fifties. Often a manager, or the one person who really understands a key client or process. They’ve spent months juggling hospital visits, calls from care staff and a full workload without mentioning any of it at work. Then a resignation letter arrives that seems to come from nowhere.

The Problem

Around 100,000 people a year in Japan leave their jobs to care for a family member, according to the government’s employment survey. Millions more are working while caring. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry expects around 3 million people to be working and caring at the same time by 2030, and estimates the cost to the economy at around ¥9 trillion, mostly through lost productivity among people who stay in work but struggle.

The support schemes already exist. What’s striking is how little they’re used. A 2025 survey of more than 5,000 companies found that at over half the companies where someone had quit to care for family, that person had never used caregiving leave or caregiving days off.

What the Law Now Requires

Amendments to the Childcare and Family Care Leave Act that took effect in April 2025 added several duties for all employers.

Information at age 40.
Every employee must be given information individually about caregiving leave and support, where to apply, and the caregiving leave benefit. This must happen in the fiscal year they turn 40, or in the year after their 40th birthday.

A response when someone reports a caregiving situation.
The company must explain the available schemes to that employee individually and ask whether they intend to use them.

At least one workplace measure.
This can be training, a consultation desk, sharing examples of employees who have used the schemes, or a published policy encouraging their use.

Caregiving days off from the first day.
Employees with under six months’ service can no longer be excluded.

Companies are also expected to make efforts to offer telework to employees caring for family. The existing entitlements remain: 93 days of caregiving leave per family member, which can be split into up to three blocks, and five caregiving days off a year, or ten for two or more family members.

Many companies met the new duties with an email and a PDF. That probably satisfies the law. It does very little to keep anyone.

Why People Quit Anyway

They use the leave for the wrong thing.
Caregiving leave is meant for setting up care arrangements, not for providing the care yourself. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare says this clearly, and specialists who advise companies on caregiving see the opposite happen all the time. An employee takes weeks off to look after a parent personally and becomes the main carer. Care needs rarely end within 93 days. When the leave runs out, the job goes.

They don’t tell anyone.
People who work with employee carers report that guilt is the main reason they stay quiet. Guilt about causing trouble and letting the team down, more than the care itself. Managers are often the least likely to speak up.

The work depends on them.
When one person handles something nobody else understands, they come to believe everything will stop without them. Resigning can feel more responsible than asking for help.

The first sign is easy to miss.
Caregiving often starts with a sudden crisis: a fall, a stroke, a dementia diagnosis. The first thing HR sees is usually a request for a few days off. That request is the moment to act, and it tends to go by unnoticed.

What HR Can Do

Make the first conversation count

When someone asks for time off because a parent is in hospital, treat it as the start of a caregiving situation. Explain the basic steps: apply for a care needs assessment through the local municipality, get a care manager assigned, and arrange care services. Explain that the company can support each step with time off. And suggest they don’t make any decision about their job yet.

Explain what the leave is for

Put this in the age-40 information, in manager training and in the first conversation. One way to describe it: use the first block of leave to set up care after the crisis, keep the second for when care needs change, such as a move into a care facility, and hold the third in reserve. Caregiving days off can be taken by the hour, which suits meetings with the care manager or hospital appointments.

Offer an outside channel

Employees will often tell an outside adviser things they won’t tell HR. Consider an external caregiving consultation service, and make sure people know about the local community support center run by their municipality, which is free and knows the local services.

Reduce single points of failure

Find out which tasks, clients or processes depend entirely on one person, and start cross-training before a crisis forces it. This helps with any long absence, not only caregiving, and it removes one of the main reasons people resign instead of asking for help.

Prepare managers

Managers need to know what to say when someone tells them. Listen, thank them for saying something, and point them to HR. One thing to avoid is the kind suggestion to take some time off to look after their parent. It sounds supportive, and it pushes people straight toward the mistake that ends in resignation.

Share real examples

Of the four workplace measures in the law, sharing internal examples is the one most likely to change behavior. A short, anonymous account of someone who used the leave to set up care and kept working shows everyone else that asking is safe.

Beyond that, everyday flexibility does more than any formal scheme. Telework, shorter hours and caregiving days off by the hour are unglamorous, and they are what keep people in work.

Compliance and Practice Checklist

The first four items are legal requirements. The last three go further, and make the difference in practice.

  • Do employees receive individual information on caregiving support in the year they turn 40, or the year after their 40th birthday?
  • When someone reports a caregiving situation, is there a set process to inform them individually and ask about their intentions?
  • Is at least one of the four required workplace measures in place?
  • Can employees with under six months’ service take caregiving days off?
  • Does the information explain that caregiving leave is for arranging care, not providing it?
  • Do managers know what to say, and what not to say, when an employee mentions caregiving?
  • Is telework or flexible scheduling available to carers where the job allows it?

The resignation letter shouldn’t be the first HR hears about it. The aim is to hear a year earlier, while there’s still time to set things up.