Let’s discuss about women in the workforce in Japan. Although women are no longer compared to Christmas cakes, that is to say not much good after 25, Japan still has a ways to go regarding the development of careers of women in the workforce. While the number of working women has gradually been on the rise since the Equal Opportunities legislation passed in 1986, most of this increase has been in part-time and contractual positions. In 2014, just 9% of management positions in the private sector were occupied by women. Stories abound of talented, well-educated and motivated young women who start on promising careers only to be sidelined to administrative positions as working mothers. A significant number of women still prefer to be stay-at-home mothers, if possible. In order to push reforms into meaningful career paths for women and to tap into this latent talent pool, a new law was introduced in 2016 requiring firms with more than 300 employees to publicly declare statistics on the number of women employees and managers. And to come up with strategies for promoting them to higher management positions with a clear time frame and objective. [MUSIC] The government plans to reward compliant firms with preferential treatment in bidding for public orders, but there an no such sanctions for non compliant firms. It remains to be seen whether the incentives are strong enough to shape corporate Japan to put more women into their management ranks. In this culture, where women are expected to take care of the children, this type of initiative also becomes heavy on development of institutional childcare, which remains highly undeveloped. For example, Shiseido experienced backlash when they asked beauty consultants, including those with young children, to work in the evenings and weekends to cover the most profitable sales period. This was perceived as a step back for women, who have to juggle work and childcare. At the same time, from the firm's perspective, this measure was introduced to provide opportunities for women to invest in their work and to create opportunities for promotion. In addition, firms may not need to work only on the numbers but to think about how they can then create a work environment that favors a work life balance by increasing efficiency such as shorter office hours in the corporate culture of long hours, flexible hours and work from home. Such changes in work culture not only benefit women seeking management and leadership responsibilities but also men who are chronically fatigued from the long work hours culture.