{"id":178232,"date":"2026-06-23T13:19:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T04:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=178232&#038;lang=en"},"modified":"2026-06-23T13:19:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T04:19:17","slug":"kitakyushu-expands-childcare-incentives","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/news\/kitakyushu-expands-childcare-incentives\/","title":{"rendered":"Kitakyushu Expands Childcare Incentives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kitakyushu City has introduced a new subsidy program encouraging companies to support male employees who use reduced working hours for childcare. Under the scheme, businesses will receive JPY100,000 when a male employee becomes the company\u2019s first user of a childcare-related short-time work arrangement lasting at least 28 days. The city previously offered incentives for first-time male childcare leave users and awarded subsidies to 23 companies. Officials said feedback from mothers suggested that extended reduced working hours can sometimes be more beneficial than a short period of full childcare leave. The city hopes the initiative will help normalize greater paternal involvement in childcare while supporting family-friendly workplaces. <strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/news.web.nhk\/newsweb\/na\/nb-5010033709\" target=\"_blank\">NHK News<\/a> \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/www.city.kitakyushu.lg.jp\/files\/001146851.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Kitakyushu City<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/fnn_kitakyushu-city-hall_2026_cl.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-178233\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/fnn_kitakyushu-city-hall_2026_cl.jpg?w=1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/fnn_kitakyushu-city-hall_2026_cl.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/fnn_kitakyushu-city-hall_2026_cl.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><br \/>\nPhoto: <a href=\"https:\/\/kitakyu-fc.com\/contents\/location\/location-195\/\" target=\"_blank\">Kitakyushu City Film Commission<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Get Fukuoka and Kyushu\u2019s top stories delivered to your inbox. The Now is Fukuoka Now\u2019s free biweekly newsletter featuring local news, events, culture, business, and community updates in English. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/mailmagazine\/\">Subscribe to The Now<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Summaries based on public content, errors may occur during translation. Images credited independently. Send feedback using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/contact\/\">this <strong>form<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kitakyushu City has introduced a new subsidy program encouraging companies to support male employees who use reduced working hours for childcare. Under the scheme&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30292,"featured_media":178233,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"class_list":["post-178232","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","location-kitakyushu","news-category-general","en-US"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/178232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}