Shoko Kawata, the 35-year-old mayor of Yawata city in Kyoto Prefecture and Japan’s youngest elected female mayor, began her maternity leave on Monday, becoming the first sitting mayor in Japanese history to do so after discovering no legal framework existed for the position and creating one herself.
Kawata told Reuters she was very surprised to learn she was the first, adding it made her realise that until now there simply had not been many young women, or women in general, who had become mayors. She announced the leave in May, four months before her mid-September due date, saying she had met with stakeholders in February and March to secure their understanding. Deputy Mayor Shigeto Nose will lead the city during her absence, though Kawata will remain involved in major decisions via online meetings.
On Friday, her last public duty was participating in Yawata’s Taiko festival street procession. Rather than riding on top of the mikoshi, the portable Shinto shrine, as tradition requires, the heavily pregnant Kawata walked behind it.
The leave runs from late July to mid-November. Japan ranked 118th out of 148 countries in the World Economic Forum’s most recent gender gap report and 125th in political empowerment. The country recorded 671,236 births in 2025, a record low and the tenth straight annual decline.
