The government formally decided Friday to encourage male civil service workers from April to take paternity leave for a minimum of one month.
Under the policy, the performance of managers will be evaluated partly on how easy they make it for subordinates to take paternity leave. Other measures will be introduced to make it easier for new fathers to make arrangements for their work to be done in their absence.
The policy also recommends workers take leave within eight weeks of childbirth in consideration of the physical burden on their partners. In principle, workers are able to take paternity leave up to a year from the birth of a child.