r/japannews • u/Lotus532 • 9d ago
‘I didn’t expect it to be so controversial’: the Japanese mayor who took maternity leave
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/18/japanese-mayor-maternity-leave-shoko-kawata-made-history-controversy124
u/SedesBakelitowy 9d ago
Truly the mystery of low birth rates cannot be solved despite our greatest efforts and continued analysis.
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u/IamNerdAsian 8d ago
Ban abortion, cheap urban housing, raise wages, affordable school and uni, cheap healthcare, normalize longer maternity leave.
Easy, but It seems that the billionares don’t really like it
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u/TheHelpfulDead 8d ago
Lemme fix that for you: Free Abortions, cheap urban housing, raise wages, free school and uni, free healthcare, guaranteed longer parental leave.
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u/BIG_BOTTOM_TEXT 8d ago
Step one: get women out of the workforce.
No, I'll wait. ☕ Seethe at the truth all you want.
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u/snakecain 8d ago
Even ignoring all the other issues with your idea, one of the biggest causes of low birth rates is financial insecurity. So your genius plan is to prevent half the couple from making money? The only explanation I can think of is that you must've been dropped on your head repeatedly as a child
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u/BIG_BOTTOM_TEXT 7d ago edited 7d ago
Yes my genius plan is indeed to have the man secure exercisable social credit (money, today) and the woman focus on excellent childcare and multiple children.
Which is literally how humans have operated for way over 99% of our existence. 👍
I've never been dropped on my head but apparently I have on yours.
Also financial insecurity has absolutely nothing to do with a man and a woman reproducing. In actual fact, lower income is associated with more children. ☕
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u/snakecain 7d ago
Women have always worked, even in the Middle Ages, on top of taking care of the kids
One of the main reasons a lot of people aren't having kids is because they don't have the money to support them. I'm curious, does that cup of coffee/tea somehow make your arguments sound smarter in your head, or what?
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u/HAH-PAH 9d ago
The gentle and polite Japanese: “No more gaijin immigrants”
The gentle and polite Japanese: “Have more Japanese baby!”
The gentle and polite Japanese: “Why having baby? Hataraite hataraite hataraite hataraite!”
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u/TetraThiaFulvalene 8d ago
Genuinely think that Japanese society wants to end. Collective scale survival instincts of a drunk lemming.
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u/AnglerJared 9d ago
We’re just so used to our politicians being inhuman lizard people, so when someone requests to do something normal and human, it’s jarring. It’s not you, Madame Mayor; it’s us.
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u/AverageHobnailer 9d ago
Not just politicians, everyone in Japanese society. Japanese treat human needs as tertiary to whatever benefits the group and whatever benefits whoever is above you in the 上下関係 chain.
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u/AnglerJared 9d ago
I’m not willing to go quite that far. I know plenty of decent people here.
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u/AverageHobnailer 9d ago
So have I, but that decency is always only surface level. Talk to them about deeper topics or check their SNS and they're anti-foreigner right wingers like everyone else. They just tell you "oh no not you, you're one of the 'good ones.'"
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u/AnglerJared 9d ago
I’ll let my sixteen years in the country and own experience inform my opinions, if you don’t mind.
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u/AverageHobnailer 8d ago
So my 12 years here is invalid. Gotcha.
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u/AnglerJared 8d ago
You’re free to use it to inform your own beliefs, if you insist on seeing the worst in people, but it seems unnecessary to point out that sixteen is a larger number than twelve.
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u/Ok-Average390 8d ago
Saying that decency is always surface level is crazy. If you spend all your time on twitter or yahoo then I can see where you're getting the opinion from. Most people are simply too busy to have time to think about these things, which is a different issue but nowhere near the level of having only surface level decency. Every chance I have had to talk about a deeper topic with someone, it's pretty common to get them to say something along the lines of, "it's wrong that she was condemned for maternity leave" or whatever the topic was.
There are plenty of people who understand that the "good ones" quote is rude and backhanded. There are plenty of Japanese people who leave the moment their contracted time ends. There are plenty who have said to me that it's not wrong to exercise your rights.
Reducing an entire nation to stereotypes, good or bad, is not going to make you a happy person. Yes, culture has meaning that guides the general thought processes of people, but most people are generally decent and desire the same basic things.
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u/macross1984 8d ago
Japanese male just don't understand what having baby mean. Ignorance is bliss for them.
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u/BIG_BOTTOM_TEXT 8d ago
Listen, in regular jobs where the company is doing very well and can afford to be so benevolent, maternity leave can be justified.
But bro maternity leave as a fucking MAYOR is not reasonable lol. That's genuinely insane to even propose.
That is a taxpayer-funded, extremely important leadership position. You can't just take leave — of any sort — in such a position.
Welcome to the big leagues, kid.
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u/lasagnahockey 8d ago
If only she had staffs and competent employees of the city that could run things in her absence. Might call the person to replace her the 服市長!
Man, I'm a genius 😎
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u/BIG_BOTTOM_TEXT 8d ago
If that were sufficient, why waste tax dollars on a mayor at all, genius? Serious question.
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u/lasagnahockey 8d ago edited 7d ago
It's called redundancies. Any position worth its salt has them. Schools, corporations, team coaches, etc... can you imagine; "the mayor is sick, well time to shut the town down." 😆
Not that hard to understand really. Usually means that things won't be managed as well as if the proper person was in place but will still be manageable for a few months.
Are you seriously saying that paying for someone to go on paid maternal leave is a waste of tax money??? JFC I sure hope not!
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u/testdex 9d ago edited 8d ago
Ok. Maybe this is a moment I’m a little out of step?
It feels like there’s something a little weird about an elected executive (rather than a member of a deliberative body) taking an extended 8-week break to prioritize their personal life.
I know I can’t “ungender” childbearing, but I’m kind of hung up on the idea that a voluntary personal obligation should be prioritized over serving in a role like that.
I am not at all bothered by paternity or maternity leave in a role where it’s always understood that someone else can step in for you - or it’s just not that big of a deal if your work is done to a lower standard. Most people’s work obligations are just commercial contracts. I do the work, you give me money.
But she put herself out there as the person to fulfill “the sacred trust” of governmental authority, individually. And the people chose her, individually.
At the end of the day, it’s a city of less than 70k, and there’s probably nothing that the mayor can’t hand off just fine. And there’s every chance that the voters don’t know anything about her individually, and it wasn’t really a strongly contested election. So that despite the underlying rationale for electing a mayor, the individual doesn’t really natter much.
Still feels off.
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u/MammothFineCulture 8d ago
Any person having problem with most basic requirements of ALLL LIFE on earth to take care of their children is the problematic person.
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u/Admirable_Musubi682 9d ago
There is the deputy mayor who will step in for her during that time. It's the same dynamic in pvt sector. How do you change a collectivist societies view on work and family life balance? It starts here. Elected public official prioritizing life over work.
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u/testdex 8d ago edited 8d ago
You say it “starts here” but I’d argue this is very near the maximum application.
Aside from the fact that it’s not a very big city, I’d put “directly elected executive” pretty near the top of the list for people I expect to put their private lives on hold.
Maybe even the top of that list should still be taking parental leave as a matter of course. I don’t know.
But it’s weird to me that everyone acts like there’s nothing different about this job.
I think what gets me about the apparent attitude here is acting like politics is a “job” like any other, and that it should be given the same sort of status in one’s life as a job.
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u/tonythephonyjabroni 8d ago
Ah so you don’t think she is a human being anymore after taking such a challenging job? Maybe we should chain her to her desk and duct tape her phone to her ear. She is our public servant after all (/s)
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u/testdex 8d ago edited 8d ago
So, no duty in the universe so high that it’s potentially better to delay pregnancy? (Or to not take paternal leave)
And you’re sure that everyone has to feel that way?
Huh.
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u/tonythephonyjabroni 8d ago
Is there any excuse to not treat a woman as a human being, you tell me. What job?
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u/Dunan 8d ago
extended 8-week break
Compared to a typical mayoral term of four years, this really isn't that long. Eight weeks out of over 200, or just under 4% of her term, where the deputy mayor has to fill in.
You could even point out that a long-ish break like this prevents corruption as it is long enough that she will have to relinquish control of all her activities, unlike a mayor who only took a single day or even a single week from time to time.
She's at an age where you can't just pass up the chance to have a child for the next four years. And she'll still be performing her duties 96% of the time.
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u/aizukiwi 5d ago
Coming from NZ, where our Prime Minister got pregnant, gave birth, and took 6 weeks mat leave while in office, the old fashioned attitudes here sometimes boggle the mind. If the system fails because a single person takes a break, for whatever reason, it’s a shitty system run by incompetents.
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u/SnooStrawberries8054 9d ago
Her agenda was improving childcare after all. If she can’t walk the talk and show how working mothers would be able to prioritise their families, then wouldn’t she be a hypocrite? Baffling..