"Two Men in Japan Dared to Take Paternity Leave. It Cost Them Dearly, They Say", 12 Sep 2019

...Now two men in Japan who did take time off to care for newborns are suing their employers, saying the companies punished them with demotions and pay cuts after they returned from paternity leave.

...Japanese laws allow fathers to take up to a year of paid leave to care for children, just as new mothers can. Yet the participation rate among men in Japan is low — just over 6 percent, up from about 3 percent in 2016 — and most of those men take less than two weeks off when a child is born...

...One of the two men suing their employers in Japan is an American who was a managing director for global sales in the Tokyo office of Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities, an investment bank. The man...alleges that he was demoted and eventually fired after he took paternity leave...

...Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley has denied paternity harassment and said it intends to fight the allegations in court...

...[A]n employee of Asics, the sneaker maker, said he had been subjected to harassment and demotion both before and after he took paternity leave...

...Asics issued a statement saying that many of the allegations are “against the facts” and that it regretted not reaching a settlement with its employee...

Asics said it planned to continue improving its “work environment and support systems so that employees can actively participate in work even in the period of their pregnancy, childbearing or child care."...