When Fumiko Kasai returned to work a decade ago she found the job market was very different to the one she had left in the 1980s to raise her four children.
Kasai, who had enjoyed a well-paid, full-time job with a car firm before giving up work when she married, is now a temporary worker at a butcher's. Earning ¥200,000 a month, her hourly pay is around half that of a full-time worker doing the same job.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has put tackling labor inequality at the center of his policy agenda as the number of temporary workers hits a record high, posing a challenge to his Abenomics stimulus package ahead of next month's Upper House election.