I was singing that song by Jerry Lewis last night during a magnitude 7.3 earthquake that struck off Japan’s Pacific coast on Wednesday night at 11:36 PM local time that impacted Tokyo and much of eastern Japan.

We were jolted awake and waited for what seemed an eternity until our building stopped swaying. We experienced no personal property damage.

The earthquake was located near Fukushima and Miyagi, regions that were battered by a devastating quake and tsunami just over 11 years ago.

Hundreds of people living along the coasts of Fukushima and Miyagi were evacuated to shelters as the quake triggered blackouts that affected more than 2 million households, caused fires and structural damage, and disrupted train services. Two small tsunami waves also hit the coastal areas.

Fortunately, the Tokyo Electric Power Company reported no major problems or abnormalities at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day, a time to celebrate women’s achievements, and how far we have come with gender equality.

Japan has one of the world’s worst records on gender equality.  Sexism, wage discrimination and sexual harassment at work have been ignored. After years of government promises to help women “shine,” the World Economic Forum ranks Japan 120th out of 156 countries.

The Economist’s “glass-ceiling index” that measures the role and influence of women in the workforce across the OECD, ranks four Nordic countries—Sweden, Iceland, Finland and Norway—as the best places for working women. The United States is 20th out of 29 countries. Japan and South Korea fill the bottom two places.

In many countries, the labor movement has championed gender equality.  Not in Japan where problems like wage discrimination and sexual harassment at work are often ignored.

Watch for an upcoming post on Japan’s labor movement.