Japan Up in Arms Over Female Mayor's Maternity Leave... What About South Korea?

[Anchor]

In Japan, a female mayor is facing a barrage of criticism demanding her resignation after taking maternity leave, the first local government head in the country to do so. With no existing regulations on maternity leave for such positions, experts point to aspects that South Korea should also examine.

Tokyo correspondent Mun Junmo reports.

[Reporter]

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

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

Elected three years ago as the youngest mayor in the country, she announced her pregnancy last May and declared that she would take maternity leave.

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

This single remark sparked a 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 in place.

Online platforms were flooded with criticism calling her irresponsible and demanding her resignation.

However, Mayor Kawata argued that this was effectively the same as excluding women of childbearing age from high-ranking positions, and she began her four-month maternity leave on the 20th.

[Kawata Shoko / Mayor of Iwata: We need to create a society where people are not forced to choose between dedicating themselves to their work or giving birth and focusing on their families.]

The absence of even maternity leave regulations stems from 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 regional municipalities and 3.7% of local municipalities.

Although the House of Representatives introduced maternity leave for lawmakers in June of last year, Igarashi Eri, a lawmaker of the Constitutional Democratic Party who became the first to apply for the leave four months later, was bombarded with messages demanding her resignation.

In South Korea, elected public officials are not classified as workers under the Labor Standards Act, meaning there are also 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 the bills failed to clear the legislative hurdle.

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

(Photo courtesy of Han Chul-min and Moon Hyun-jin | Video by Chang Hyun-ki | Graphics by Seo Seung-hyun)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.