Shoko Kawata, the mayor of the western Japanese city of Yawata, became the first sitting mayor in Japan to begin maternity leave on Monday, marking a milestone that has attracted widespread domestic debate and international attention.
Kawata, who was elected in 2023 at the age of 33 as Japan’s youngest female mayor, said she had always planned to have children while serving in office. However, she discovered that although Yawata city employees are guaranteed 16 weeks of maternity leave, no equivalent policy existed for the city’s mayor, requiring her administration to establish one.
Speaking to Reuters before beginning her leave, Kawata said she was surprised to learn that she was the first serving mayor in the country to take maternity leave.
“I was very surprised myself to learn that I am the first mayor to take maternity leave,” she said. “It made me realise that until now there simply haven’t been many young women, or women in general, who have become mayors.”
One of Kawata’s final official engagements before starting her leave took place on Friday during a street procession ahead of Yawata’s Taiko festival. Instead of riding atop the traditional mikoshi, or portable Shinto shrine, as custom dictates, the heavily pregnant mayor walked behind the procession.
Her decision comes against the backdrop of persistent gender disparities in Japanese politics. Although Sanae Takaichi became Japan’s first female prime minister last year, women remain significantly underrepresented in political leadership. Japan ranked 118th out of 148 countries in the World Economic Forum’s latest Global Gender Gap Report and placed 125th in the category measuring political empowerment.
Kawata argued that broader institutional reforms are needed if Japan is to address its demographic challenges, including one of the world’s lowest birth rates. She said creating an environment where people in leadership positions can have children without hesitation is essential to tackling long-term population decline and its economic consequences.
“People talk about gender equality and work-style reform, but we need to build a society in which people, across all professions, including among those in leadership roles, do not hesitate to have children,” she said. “Otherwise, I believe continual population decline resulting from falling birth rates, and the resulting economic deterioration are inevitable.”
Japanese law entitles women to approximately 14 weeks of maternity leave, with benefits typically covering around two-thirds of their wages and including a childbirth bonus. Some government employees receive more generous provisions.
Kawata said she had received strong encouragement from colleagues and broad support from local residents, but expressed disappointment over criticism that emerged online following extensive media coverage of her leave.
“People who had never heard of me before only learned about me through reports focusing on the maternity leave,” she said. “Some people criticised me online, suggesting that I wasn’t doing my job and was just there to take maternity leave. That was disappointing.”
Most Yawata residents interviewed by Reuters supported the mayor’s decision. However, some questioned whether she should continue receiving her full salary while away from office. Local resident Chie Fujita said she supported maternity leave as a woman’s right but disagreed with the mayor receiving 100% of her salary during the period.
Kawata is expecting her baby in September, and her maternity leave has brought renewed attention to workplace policies and gender representation in Japan’s political leadership.
