In addition, research is increasingly concerned with analysing the work-life balance, barriers to improving this balance and the characteristics of companies implementing measures to balance work and family life, and with demonstrating the benefits of family-friendly policies at company level (Wakisaka, 2007; Atsumi, 2007; and Kodama etal., In 2005, a law was passed obliging companies with more than 300 workers to set up action plans to promote their work-life balance and an accreditation system was introduced to encourage companies to implement childcare-leave schemes (OECD, 2008a; and Takeishi, 2007). Other measures concern reducing working hours for parents with young children.