One in four Japanese companies want their female employees to quit after giving birth, rather than taking child care leave, according to a new survey by Aidem Inc., a publisher of a magazine on job information. The results are yet more evidence that many Japanese companies do not consider the contributions by female employees to be of much value. The disappointing conclusion is that many Japanese firms are locked into out-of-date attitudes that do little to help find ways out of the current economic malaise.

The poll of 1,439 firms found that 25.3% want women to quit after giving birth. Only 30.4% of firms want female workers to take leave and return, while 44.3% said they "somewhat want" them to. Those figures offer evidence that the forward-looking attitude needed for Japan to reinvigorate its economy by better using the huge pool of talent from women has yet to take hold.

The results of the poll were very different between firms with female managers and those without. Among firms with women in management, 37.6% said they want workers to take child care leave and return to work; but among firms without any female managers, that figure dropped to just 21.6%. Unfortunately, another recent survey by consultancy McKinsey and Co. found that the number of female managers in Japan was almost the lowest in Asia, coming in ahead of only South Korea.