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Shoko Kawata, Japan's youngest female mayor, has become the country's first sitting mayor to take maternity leave after creating a framework for the office. Her decision has sparked debate over support for women leaders, workplace reforms and gender equality amid Japan's declining birth rate.

Tokyo, July 20, 2026: The mayor of a small Japanese city on Monday became the first sitting mayor in the country to take maternity leave, a move that has sparked criticism from some quarters while drawing international media attention.

Shoko Kawata, the mayor of Yawata, a city of about 69,000 people in western Japan, said she had always planned to have children after becoming Japan's youngest female mayor in 2023 at the age of 33.

Although Yawata city employees are entitled to 16 weeks of maternity leave, no such provision existed for the mayor's office. Kawata said she had to establish a framework for the position herself.

"I was very surprised myself to learn that I am the first mayor to (take maternity leave). It made me realise that until now there simply haven't been many young women, or women in general, who have become mayors," Kawata told Reuters at Yawata City Hall on Friday.