Unpaid work is one of gender equality’s problems that inevitably occurs in domestic life. Most women experience inequality problems because of pre-existing views of a woman’s role. This study aims to determine the circumstances and changes in unpaid work in Indonesia and Japan during COVID-19 pandemic and before pandemic. The method used in this research is literature study and interviews. These interviews were conducted with 8 Indonesian families and 8 Japanese families where both partners are working. Based on the data processing result, it can be seen that there is an increase in the time to do unpaid work for both women and men during COVID-19 pandemic. Other than the time increase, men’s role in taking care of the households also increased but the dominant worker at home is still women. From this study, gender equality of unpaid work at home is more balanced in Indonesia than Japan. This statement can be seen because of the role of Indonesian women in society such as the number of working women, women’s role in government and others. With this study the authors provide ideas of handling unpaid work problems in domestic life.