Japan’s youngest elected female mayor is making history again by taking time off to become a first-time mother.
Shoko Kawada, 35, the mayor of Yawata, Kyoto Prefecture, has announced that she will take maternity leave to coincide with the birth of her upcoming child in order to spearhead a national debate and expose the glaring disparities in Japan’s historically patriarchal labor and political systems.
Ms. Kawada, who was elected in 2023, is due to give birth in mid-September, and will be taking maternity leave for a total of 16 weeks, eight weeks before and eight weeks after giving birth, which is believed to be the first time for a sitting mayor in Japan.
Although civil servants are entitled to maternity leave, there is no legal framework that guarantees leave to elected officials.
Kawata said she hoped her breakthrough would be a “catalyst for system change” as Japan grapples with a rapidly declining birthrate and persistent gender disparities in political leadership. The country elected its first female prime minister just last year, but women now make up less than 15% of the lower house of parliament, according to IPU Perline, which tracks global data on national parliaments.
“Through this, we hope to encourage not only workers, but also managers, managers, and all people involved in various jobs, to strike an appropriate balance with work and tackle life events such as raising children and giving birth,” Kawata told CNN.
Kawata plans to appoint a deputy to fill in for her absence from leading the city of about 70,000 people, located about 450 kilometers southwest of Tokyo. She plans to check her email regularly while caring for her newborn at home.
After Ms. Kawada announced her maternity leave, criticism of her planned maternity leave erupted on Japanese social media, with some claiming that government employees’ absenteeism from work was a waste of taxpayers’ money. But Kawata said the people he spoke to directly were “incredibly understanding.”
“In fact, people are telling us to take a break. Both government officials and citizens are telling us without any hesitation that we should take a break,” she says.
Sawako Shirahase, a professor of sociology at the University of Tokyo, said much of Japan’s attitude toward government is based on “very outdated assumptions” that have not kept up with the needs of women in the modern workforce.
“The legal framework itself does not envisage mayors and heads of public offices taking maternity leave,” she told CNN. “But at the same time, no one can prohibit (someone) from taking a vacation…so this is quite a gray area.”
Shirahase said he hopes future Japanese leaders will look to Kawada to foster a culture of better work-life balance in both the private and public sectors.
Stephanie Schwarte, a researcher at the Ludwig Maximilian University Japan Center, said that although Japan has been slow to change in terms of gender equality, more women are breaking traditional norms in politics.
Citing data on women’s participation in local governance, Schwarte said that over the past five years, the number of female mayors has increased from about 50 to about 80 in more than 1,700 municipalities as of early 2026.
“We’re going to see more and more women mayors staying in office for second, third and fourth terms,” she said, adding that she is setting an example for the next generation that anyone, male or female, can contribute to the community and do a good job.
The debate over Mayor Yawata’s maternity leave also occurs in the context of the Japanese government’s decades-long efforts to combat the declining birthrate. The number of births in Japan in 2025 will be 671,236, marking the 10th consecutive year of decline and the lowest ever.
Efforts to increase births have accelerated in recent years as the demographic crisis becomes clearer, with new policies ranging from maternity and housing subsidies to encouraging more fathers to take paternity leave.
However, many experts blame Japan’s plummeting birth rate on a deeply entrenched culture of overwork, along with rising costs of living. Many young people of childbearing age may choose to focus on their careers rather than starting a family. Employees in a variety of sectors are reporting harsh working hours, high pressure from superiors and, in extreme cases, karoshi (death from overwork), a term used to describe fatal heart or brain illnesses caused by work.
Kawata told CNN that change remains slow because Japan’s workplace and government systems are not yet adapted to the needs of women considering childbirth and motherhood.
According to the World Bank, the country’s gender gap in the workplace is slightly higher than in other high-income countries, with labor force participation rates of about 72% for men and 56% for women.
“If you want to have a child, you have to give up your career, and if you want to pursue a career, you have to give up having a child,” Kawata said, arguing that women should not be forced to make a “choice between the two.”
“Currently, we are working to gradually improve this situation, and we believe that we are moving toward designing a system that will achieve appropriate gender equality.”
