Sayaka Osakabe

is a Japanese women's rights activist and politician. She is known for popularizing the term: "matahara" (referring to the act of harassing pregnant employees and forcing them to quit their position at work) and raising awareness in Japan that acts of matahara are illegal. She was a 2015 winner of the US State Department's International Women of Courage Award. In April 2023, Osakabe was elected to the City Assembly of Yokohama, representing the Aoba Ward.

Biography Sayaka Osakabe was born in Japan in 1977. In June, 2014, she won her case and formed a support group called Matahara Net, using a portmandeau of the English words "maternity and harassment" to create the name, which has now become a legal term.

In 2019 the World Economic Forum ranked Japan 121st in the world in workplace equality and official labor statistics showed one in four working women experienced maternity harassment. Though Japanese law guaranteed women the right to seek less physically demanding roles during pregnancy and allowed 14 weeks of maternity leave or parental leave, for either parent, in conjunction with childbirth, many women failed to utilize the guarantees due to perceived job insecurity.

On 18 September 2014 Matahara members attended a trial at the Supreme Court in support of another woman undergoing a similar situation. The woman was demoted by her hospital employer during her pregnancy. A lower court ruling found that it was "in the scope of the hospital authority over personnel issues to remove her from her supervisory position," but Japan's Equal Employment Opportunity Law specifically bans demotion due to pregnancy.

Thanks to Osakabe's actions and commitment, maternity harassment has been punishable by law in Japan since 2017. After establishing Natural Rights Co., Ltd., a company dedicated to providing workshops, educational materials, lectures, and articles regarding matahara and other social issues, she felt the limitations of activism and decided to enter the arena of local politics. During this time she and her husband were blessed with 2 children, and she campaigned for the Yokohama City Assembly with the support of the majority Liberal Democratic Party. In April 2023 Osakabe was elected to represent the Aoba Ward of the City of Yokohama – she was the first mother of a pre-school-age child (未就学児) to become an elected official.

Not content to wait patiently for seniority within her party to push for policy changes, Osakabe continues to push the boundaries within the Japanese political system for women, and parents. In April 2024, Osakabe carried out the Liberal Democratic Party's "First survey of recently elected men and women local legislators raising pre-school-age children," and presented its results directly to party leadership, specifically to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, together with requested policy changes to improve the ability of local legislators to carry out their duties without sacrificing time spent raising children.