This chapter introduces the main issues with which the book deals. It begins with the question of the definition of work and the ways in which standard assumptions have led to the absence of unpaid household labour, typically carried out by women, in the analysis and quantification of output and living standards in the past. Neglect of the contribution of unpaid labour poses particular problems for long-term and comparative studies and feminist scholars are beginning to research ingenious new data with which to overcome it. This study will consider the case of Japan, making use of analysis of the characteristics of Japanese consumer goods—principally food and clothing—as a means to assessing how unpaid and largely female labour contributed to the household’s productive activities. It thereby introduces the idea that Japan may have followed a distinctly ‘housework-intensive’ path of development with significant implications for global comparisons.