FEATURE: Women's Day Off: women strike to narrow Japan's huge gender gap

TOKYO - In 1975, women in Iceland stopped work and household chores to protest gender pay gaps in a male-dominated society. The resulting reforms made the country a leader in gender equality. More than half a century later, women in Japan, ranked 118th out of 148 countries in the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report, are trying to do likewise.

Japanese women are often cited as being among the busiest in the world. They spend many long hours doing housework, caring for children, and working.