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Yuka Ogata (緒方 夕佳, Ogata Yūka, born 1 August 1975) is a Japanese local politician and a member of the Kumamoto City Assembly. She was first elected in the 2015 local elections, winning 4,196 votes in the Higashi Ward of Kumamoto. Before entering public office, Ogata was an officer in the Yemen office of UNDP.

Baby in assembly controversy

Ogata was the center of a November 2017 controversy in the City Assembly. Unable to obtain a nursery spot, she entered an assembly session with her infant son to highlight the difficulties facing children-raising working Japanese parents and the lack of nursery spaces. Soon after taking her seat, the council speaker Yoshitomo Sawada and his colleagues confronted her to ask why she had brought her infant into the chamber. After several minutes, Ogata yielded and was escorted to the speaker's office. She then returned to the delayed session alone after leaving her son in a friend's care. Sawada later apologised for opening the session 40 minutes late, but another assemblyman was heard to implicitly blame Ogata instead for the episode. The assembly did not have a rule prohibiting members to enter the chamber with their children, but the assembly considered the baby as a visitor, who is required to sit in the gallery.

The local incident unexpectedly gained national and international prominence. It was cited as a proof that the current environment is hostile for Japanese women juggling between their careers and families, and even worse for those in politics. Commentators observed that Ogata's actions illustrated how the impact Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's womenomics policies were still limited. Ogata also criticised the fact that women with children were rarely consulted in policy making.

Ogata was later reprimanded by the assembly for disrupting proceedings. The assembly passed a proposal in February, banning any non-members from entering the debating chamber as a response to the November incident.

References

1. ^ Sawada, Shimon (23 November 2017). "7-month-old baby gets the boot from local assembly session". Asahi Shimbun. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
2. 議員名簿ー緒方 夕佳. Kumamoto City Assembly (in Japanese). Retrieved 13 March 2018.
3. 熊本市議会議員選挙 立候補者情報（2015年04月12日） (in Japanese). 選挙ドットコム (senkyo.com). Retrieved 13 March 2018.
4. プロフィールー熊本市議会議員ー緒方夕佳. 緒方夕佳 (in Japanese). Retrieved 13 March 2018.
5. McCurry, Justin (24 November 2017). "Japanese politicians force colleague with baby to leave chamber". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
6. Fifield, Anna; Oda, Yuki (24 November 2017). "A Japanese politician took her baby to work. Male colleagues made a fuss". The Washington Post. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
7. Kyodo News (13 March 2018). "Kumamoto assembly bans nonmembers in response to November baby disruption". Japan Times. Retrieved 13 March 2018.

External links

• Official website in Japanese.

• 1975 births
• Living people
• People from Kumamoto
• 21st-century Japanese politicians
• 21st-century Japanese women politicians
• George Mason University alumni