Baby ejection from meet sparks debate in Japan

TOKYO: A local Japanese female politician who brought her baby into an assembly meeting to highlight the issues women face in the workplace has sparked debate after being ejected from the chamber.

Yuka Ogata took her sevenmonth-old son to join a municipal assembly session of southern Kumamoto city on Wednesday but other lawmakers asked her to leave, according to local media.

“Under the rules, only politicians, staff members and city of City Assembly told Agence FrancePresse on Friday.

The assembly was delayed for 40 minutes. Ogata joined after leaving the child with a friend, according to public broadcaster NHK.

“Apparently she told the chairman that she wanted to create a woman- friendly work environ

Her move has sparked debate online with supporters saying she was brave and opponents questioning if it was a good idea to bring a baby to a workplace.

“I think her act was wonderful. People wouldn’t take problems seriously” if she hadn’t shown up with the child, one Twitter user said.

“Balancing work and child rearing isn’t about being with a child all the time at a workplace,” herself as a fellow working mother.

“I really cannot understand her action,” wrote this user.

In May, a breastfeeding senator made Australian political history by becoming the first woman to nurse her newborn baby in the parliament.

Being able to breastfeed in the chamber follows new rules introduced last year to create a more “family-friendly” parliament.

Under previous rules, children were technically banned in the Australian parliament.

has made increasing female participation in the workforce a key plank of his “Abenomics” strategy to reboot Japan’s oncemighty economy.

However, women are still underrepresented in politics with only 47 of the 465 members of the lower house.

According to statistics compiled by the Swiss- based InterParliamentary Union, this ratio of 10.1 percent places Japan below Myanmar and Gambia.