This book investigates the systemic economic and social inequalities faced by part-time female workers within the Japanese labor market. Kaye Broadbent, an expert in Japanese labor relations, utilizes a combination of historical analysis and direct workplace case studies to argue that the 'part-time' designation is frequently used as a mechanism to suppress wages and deny benefits to women who perform labor equivalent to full-time staff. The text challenges the traditional 'lifetime employment' model by exposing how gendered employment tracks perpetuate occupational segregation and economic vulnerability.

Experts recognize this work as a critical contribution to the study of gendered labor structures in East Asia. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the thoroughness of the empirical data provided.