Japan Stirred as Pregnant Mayor Takes Maternity Leave Despite Backlash of Irresponsibility

[Anchor]

A female mayor in Japan has gone on a four-month maternity leave. As this is the first time for a local government head, she faced criticisms of being irresponsible, and even calls for her resignation. Because there are so few female elected officials, there were no relevant regulations to begin with. There are many points for us to consider as well.

Correspondent Mun Junmo reports from Tokyo.

[Reporter]

Kyotamba, Kyoto, is in the middle of a traditional festival.

The woman leading the way while heavily pregnant is Mayor Kawata Shoko.

Elected as the youngest nationwide three years ago, she announced last May along with the news of her pregnancy that she would take maternity leave.

[Kawata Shoko / Mayor of Kyotamba: I found out about the pregnancy earlier this year, and I plan to take maternity leave.]

This single remark sparked nationwide controversy.

This is because no local government head in Japan's constitutional history had ever taken maternity leave, and there were no related regulations.

Online communities were flooded with criticisms calling her irresponsible and demanding her resignation.

However, Mayor Kawata stated that this is tantamount to excluding women of childbearing age from high-ranking positions, and she began her four-month maternity leave on the 20th.

[Kawata Shoko / Mayor of Kyotamba: We must become a society where people are not forced to choose between dedicating themselves to their work or giving birth and focusing on their family.]

The absence of even maternity leave regulations was due to the extremely small number of female elected public officials.

As of the end of last year, female local government heads in Japan accounted for only 4.3% of upper-level local governments and 3.7% of lower-level local governments.

Although the House of Representatives introduced maternity leave for lawmakers in June of last year, Igarashi Eri, a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party who applied for leave for the first time four months later, suffered from a barrage of messages urging her to resign.

In South Korea, elected officials are also not classified as workers under the Labor Standards Act, meaning there are no clear regulations regarding maternity leave.

During the 20th National Assembly, lawmaker Shin Bo-ra, and during the 21st National Assembly, lawmaker Lee Soo-jin, proposed amendments to the National Assembly Act to explicitly stipulate maternity leave for lawmakers, but they failed to clear the parliamentary hurdle.

In the Gender Gap Index released by the World Economic Forum last year, South Korea ranked 101st out of 148 countries, while Japan ranked 118th.

(Video取材: Han Chul-min, Moon Hyun-jin | Video Editing: Jang Hyun-ki | Design: Seo Seung-hyun)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.