Status of Women committee  This is very true. The legislation came into place around 2010, and the latest numbers for Japan suggest that about 2% to 4% of the eligible men actually take it. The main problem is that if you take leave, this is perceived as curtains for your career, or as detrimental to it.

Status of Women committee  This is an econometrics exercise. Basically, we have various variables we can use to explain the pay gap, including the worker's education, the worker's job, and whether the worker works long hours or short hours. All those variables are included in the econometric regression, but there are other variables we cannot include.

Status of Women committee  But it's complicated, because pay is of course an issue in social partner negotiations between employers and unions. Governments can't just barge in and say, in a collective agreement bargaining system, that you have to do this or that.

Status of Women committee  Do you want me to talk about the sharing of paid and unpaid work?

Status of Women committee  I must admit that I wasn't at that particular forum. What I do know is that when it comes to entrepreneurship and initiatives, the role of women's networks and mentoring is very important. If you define “sharing” as sharing with colleagues and people in a similar situation, that is one way forward.

Status of Women committee  That's a very good question, and a tough one, in the sense that governments cannot just by law reduce the gender pay gap just like that. As you will be well aware, there are lots of people in the labour force who made their educational choices 20 and 30 years ago, and their career patterns cannot just be changed overnight.

Status of Women committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Thank you very much for having me. I wasn't quite sure what a hearing in the Canadian Parliament entailed, so I've made a little presentation—which, I hope, has been distributed among you and your colleagues—on work we are doing, basically trying to paint a picture of where Canada is standing in comparison to some other OECD countries, international comparisons being our bread and butter.