A Tokyo-based company that employs mothers who are raising children is pioneering a way to make it easier for such women to stay in the workforce.

At Mama Square Stellar Town in a big shopping mall in Kita Ward in the city of Saitama, some 15 women wearing telephone headsets are hard at work. In an adjacent room, separated by a glass wall, their children play contentedly with nursery staff.

The mothers can enter the nursery room whenever necessary, to change diapers for instance, and are alerted to such needs by a message board maintained by one of the nursery workers. They also spend lunchtime together with their children.