Japan's first mayor to take maternity leave sparks workplace debate

Shoko Kawata will step away from Yawata City Hall for nearly four months, making her the first sitting mayor in Japan to take maternity leave and leaving city officials without a clear leave rule. Roughly 70 opinions were sent to city hall by phone and email after her announcement, with some people praising her and others calling the decision irresponsible.

Kawata, the 35-year-old mayor of Yawata in Kyoto Prefecture, was elected in November 2023 and became the youngest woman to lead a city government. She married in December 2025 and is expected to give birth in September 2026. On May 21, she said she would take maternity leave this summer, and on May 26 she set the timing more precisely, saying she planned to be away from office from July 20 to around early November.

Her schedule follows the standard Japanese maternity-leave window of roughly six weeks before childbirth and eight weeks after. But mayors are treated as special public officials, not ordinary employees, so Japan’s Labor Standards Law leave provisions do not apply to Kawata. Yawata also had no ordinance specifically covering maternity leave for the mayor’s post, so city staff worked out a procedure using city employee leave rules and the city assembly’s rules of procedure.

Deputy Mayor Shigeto Nose will serve as acting mayor while Kawata is away. Under the plan, major matters will be reported back to her online at least once a week, and she has said she may attend important meetings remotely and could also take childcare leave afterward. Yawata officials began checking the relevant laws and regulations after the announcement.

The Japan Association of City Mayors calls this the first case in Japan of an incumbent local government leader taking maternity leave.

Japan ranked 118th out of 148 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Global Gender Gap Report. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said 40.5% of eligible men took childcare leave in fiscal 2024, a record high.