While the benefits of early childhood education and care (ECEC) services to better learning are now widely acknowledged, a widespread and accessible provision for these services also helps support gender equality in the workforce. In particular, the availability, intensity, reliability and affordability of ECEC play an important role in engaging…

The changing role of Japanese women can be seen in the stages of a domestic labor debate which occurred at three different times in the past 30 years. The first debate began with Ayako Ishigaki's (1955) insistence that women should have a job outside the home. Wartime production helped break down traditional divisions of labor by encouraging women…