The weather is getting warmer in Tokyo and many Japanese men are accompanying their young children to parks on the weekends, to play football or catch, or walk with them in the woods. The mothers are always not present.
東京的天氣漸漸轉暖，很多日本的爸爸們在周末陪他們的小孩在公園里踢足球，或是在林中相互追趕亦或散步。而這些場景中卻總是鮮見媽媽們的身影。

This is something of a sea change for Japanese men who have a reputation for being lazy at home.
日本男性因對家務事不上心而出名，而現在事情正在發生重大變化。

A poll of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's member countries last year found that Norwegian men pitched in the most - 180 minutes a day - with housework and related chores while Japanese men did the least - only 62 minutes a day.
去年，一項針對經濟合作與發展組織的成員國的民意調查顯示，挪威男性在家務活中投入時間最長，一天達180分鐘，而日本男性投入時間則最少，一天僅有62分鐘。

There is a reason for Japanese men's unhelpfulness at home.
日本男性在家里幫不上忙的原因如下。

In Japan's corporate culture, many employees - almost all men - are more devoted to their company than to their family. They routinely work long hours. They accept reassignment to remote locations without question. They carouse with colleagues and corporate clients till late at night.
在日本的企業文化中，很多員工或者說幾乎所有的男性員工，在公司投入的時間要比家庭投入的多。他們通常要加班。他們接受公司的委派，對于出差去邊遠的地方沒有任何質疑。他們與同事及公司的客戶一同暢飲，直到深夜。

Many young Japanese fathers today say they would like to be more involved in raising their children, but very few feel at liberty to take the child-care leave to which they are entitled by law.
如今，很多年輕的日本爸爸們稱，在撫養孩子上，他們樂意更多地參與。然而，鮮有人會隨意休育兒假，雖然法律賦予了他們這樣的權利。

Such a work style is possible for a man married to a stay-at-home woman who excuses him duties at home, but it is a different story for a woman with children.
這樣的工作方式對于娶了全職太太的男性來說還行，因為全職太太可以不需要他干家務活，但對有小孩的女性來說就要困難了。

About 70 percent of Japanese women leave the labor force after giving birth to their first child. Only about one-third of Japanese mothers with young children work, compared with 50 to 60 percent in the United States, Britain and Germany, and 75 percent in Sweden.
日本女性在生了第一胎后離開工作崗位的比率約為70%。重返職場的日本媽媽們的比例只占三分之一，而美國、英國和德國的比例為50%-60%，瑞典的比例為75%。

It is not fair to just blame Japan's corporations for Japanese women's retreat from workplaces. There are not enough child-care centers in Japan. Women are often caught in a Catch 22 situation: they cannot secure a job until a child-care slot is available, and they are not eligible for such a slot until they have a job.
如果只是責備日本公司使日本女性離開職場的話，未免有失公允。（因為）日本的幼托中心不足。日本女性總是處于進退維谷的處境：只有幼托中心有空位的話，她們才可以保證去工作，但同時只有她們有了工作，才有資格找幼托中心。

Many women, as a result, choose to stay at work rather than have children.
因此，很多女性選擇留在職場，不去生孩子。

Shinwa Agency Co, Ltd, a subsidiary of Japan's Daiwa House Group, offers its employees a bonus of 1 million yen ($8,410) for a child they give birth to. But very few female employees at Shinwa have taken the bonus.
日本大和房屋集團旗下的親和株式會社規定，員工生一個孩子會得到100萬日元（8410美元）的額外津貼。然而，幾乎沒有女性拿過這種補貼。

It is commendable that Japanese companies are changing. Some companies including Itochu, a general trading house, and Ricoh, a printer maker, are initiating flexible working hours so as to reduce or put an end to overtime.
值得稱贊的是，日本公司也在發生著變化。包括伊藤忠商事株式會社（一綜合性貿易公司）和日本理光集團（一打印機制造商）在內的一些公司推出彈性工作機制，以減少加班，或不再加班。

This move allows men to engage in raising their children and working mothers to balance work and family responsibilities.
此舉使爸爸們可以參與到撫養孩子中，陪職場媽媽們協調好工作和家庭上的事務。

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is calling on Japanese corporations to appoint at least one woman to their boards. And he is considering changing the tax laws that discourage mothers from working and providing new training subsidies to help them return to the workplace following child-care leave.
日本首相安倍晉三呼吁日本公司至少任命一名女性董事，他還考慮改變對生完孩子的女性重返工作不利的稅法，并對女性提供培訓補助，以幫助她們在休完產假之后可以重回職場。

These initiatives are not motivated by softhearted political correctness but by hard-headed economic logic. Japan's demographic challenges are too severe, and the untapped economic potential of Japanese women is too large to ignore.
這些舉措并不是來自于仁慈的“政治正確”考量，而是基于經濟邏輯的冷靜思考。日本人口結構帶來的挑戰甚是嚴重，而尚未開發的日本女性的經濟潛力巨大，不容忽視。

Japan needs to expand its workforce, which is shrinking rapidly as a result of a declining birth rate and a rapidly aging population. The road ahead for Abe's mission to remedy gender inequality in the Japanese workforce is bumpy. Japan needs to change its deeply rooted social values on gender roles and foster a work style in which overtime is not the rule but the exception.
由于人口出生率下降且人口老齡化加速，日本勞動力正在迅速萎縮，因此急需擴大勞動力。日本勞動力性別存在差異，安倍想要彌補這一差異實屬不易。日本需要改變其對性別角色根深蒂固的社會價值觀，并培養這樣的工作作風——加班不是規定，只是例外。

The best - and the simplest - way to encourage women's full participation in the workforce is to make child day care more readily and widely available. Doing so will allow mothers to return to workplaces whenever they see fit.
鼓勵女性能夠加入全職的最好且最易的辦法便是日托所變得更多更廣泛。這樣，媽媽們在方便時可以重返職場。

Tokyo's parks are one of the places where the changes underway in Japanese society are visible and laudable.
人們可以在一些地方看到日本社會發生的可喜的變化，東京的公園便是這些場所之一。

The author is China Daily's Tokyo bureau chief.
作者：蔡虹，《中國日報》東京記者站站長。

Vocabulary
sea change: 突變；突發性徹底轉變；重大變化
carouse: 暢飲；歡宴
commendable: 值得贊美的；很好的
hard-headed: 頭腦冷靜的
untapped: 未開發的；未使用的

（譯者：BUPTSunny 編輯：杜娟）