Japanese politician Yuka Ogata brought her seven-month-old son to a municipal assembly meeting to highlight the difficulties of being a working mom. And it didn’t go well.
Wednesday was the first time Ogata’s son Dogen accompanied her to work. According to the Washington Post, he sat quietly on her lap, without making noise. But the politician was asked to leave the meeting by Kumamoto city assembly chairman Yoshitomo Sawada.
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After about 40 minutes of debate, the female politician was forced out of the meeting. She handed the infant to a babysitter and returned.
The 42-year-old mother of two later told the newspaper that she brought her child to work to make a statement.
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“I wanted to appear in the assembly hall with my baby and represent the voices of mothers, working and nonworking, who tell me they’re struggling to raise a child in Japan,” she said.
“Women want to be able to raise a child and work happily, without having to sacrifice one of these things.”
Japanese labour law has no official system in place for maternity or parental leave for politicians. In 2000, a national lawmaker in the Liberal Democratic Party took three days off from parliament to give birth, prompting the legislature to allow maternity leave for members.
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A total of 12 lawmakers have taken advantage of the time off, being granted up to three months of maternity leave at the most, newspaper Mainichi Shimbun daily reported this year.
Ogata is far from the first politician who has brought a child into a sitting. Earlier this year, Australian politician Larissa Waters made history by being the first woman to breastfeed during a session of parliament.
She tweeted the picture and said she was “so proud that my baby Alia is the first baby to be breastfed in the federal Parliament!”
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Later on, Waters also became the first politician to move a motion in Australia’s senate while breastfeeding.
Babies have also made appearances in Ottawa. Last year, NDP MP Christine Moore attended a caucus meeting for the party with her infant daughter, Daphne Theriault.
— With files from Global News reporter Marillisa Racco, Reuters
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