Japan has a word for how we treat working mothers

The U.S. should learn it too.

[Photo: d3sign/Getty Images]

Shoko Kawata just became the first mayor in Japan’s history to stay in office while becoming a mother. She arranged for a deputy to cover her maternity leave, without resigning and without apologizing. That was enough to set off a national debate, complete with commentators who found it “inappropriate” for an elected official to step away from her duties for a few months. Kawata summed it up with disarming simplicity: Institutions could adapt, but people change far more slowly, and she cannot turn herself into a man.

Japan has a word for what she is up against: matahara, a contraction of “maternity harassment.” It covers everything done to pregnant employees and new mothers at work—pressure to resign, demotions upon return from leave, projects reassigned, managers who treat a pregnancy as a personal betrayal. The word is so widely........

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