“Isn’t my son’s salary enough?” That was the question a woman in her 40s from Aichi Prefecture was asked by her in-laws around eight years ago when she started working in the beauty industry — a dream she had long held.

At the time, her third child was 1 year old. Although the child was being cared for at her workplace, her in-laws expressed strong disapproval of a mother working outside the home, insisting that child-rearing was a mother’s duty.

She had been married for six years and had continued as a full-time housewife, suppressing her desire to work in deference to her husband and his parents.