Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has promised to better utilize women in the workforce as part of his "Abenomics" drive to reinvigorate the Japanese economy after years of stagnation. But in the battle to achieve gender equality, talk is cheap. Rather than just speaking about the need to level the playing field for men and women in the workplace, how can policy makers actually achieve this goal?

Short of taking a legislative approach, one government measure to prod companies into improving the work environment for women,...