Time Magazine selects Mayor Shoko Kawada of Yawata City, Kyoto Prefecture as one of the next 100 people in leadership category

[New York Current Affairs] On September 30th, the American magazine Time announced the ``100 Next Generation People'' who will lead the future in various fields such as politics, entertainment, and sports, and selected Shoko Kawada (36), the mayor of Yawata City, Kyoto Prefecture, in the leadership category. She was credited with ``setting a precedent'' for taking maternity leave, which is believed to be the first time for a current female chief executive.

Youngest female mayor to take maternity leave - first time in current position - Yawata City, Kyoto Prefecture

Ms. Kawada will become the nation's youngest female mayor in 2023 at the age of 33, and will begin maternity leave in July of this year. She gave birth to a baby girl in September.

Time magazine said that Kawada has worked to lower school lunch costs and expand the provision of postpartum care, saying, ``Through his choices and policies, he is showing how to make the country a better place for families to live.'' She also explained that in Japan, elected mayors are not eligible for the maternity leave system, and that her decision to take maternity leave had received a lot of criticism. "It highlights the pressure that working women in Japan face," he said.