EXCLUSIVE: Saitama Police Officers to Have Paternity Handbooks

October 18, 2018

Saitama- The Saitama prefectural police department plans soon to start distributing paternity handbooks to male officers and staff workers to encourage them to take part in child-rearing, Jiji Press has learned.

At the department, more male officers are taking parental leave, but they are still in a minority.

Along with the handbook distribution, the police aims to support women's social advancement by creating an environment in which male officers can take parental leave more easily to help reduce mothers' burdens, informed sources said.

An increasing number of municipalities are providing paternity handbooks to male residents, but the distribution of such books to policemen is rare, the sources said.

The department's administration section made the 27-page booklet after hearing from health nurses and workers who have taken part in raising babies.

The pocketbook will be provided to male police officers and other staff at the police after their wives become pregnant.

It shows examples of babies' growth until one year old and information from how to change diapers and make formula to phone numbers for child-rearing and emergency-consultation desks.

At the Saitama police, nine officers have taken leave to care for their babies since the first took paternal leave in 2015.

In May, the police held a seminar to encourage men to join child-rearing and respond appropriately to their spouses when they became expectant mothers, bringing together 233 participants. It plans to hold such seminars on a regular basis.

"Men's participation in child-rearing is a premise of women's social participation," said Shigeru Iwasaki, chief of the administration section. Jiji Press