However, direct public spending on child-related employment issues is still low against an ambition of achieving a major increase in fertility and/or female employment rates. The government should increase its efforts to ensure high female employment rates by reforming the tax and benefit system with a view to reducing the strong disincentives to work and to increase work effort by secondary earners, and by strengthening efforts to ease the combination of work and family life. In 1980, the majority of Japanese firms still operated a mandatory retirement age at 55.