I don’t often write about affairs. Let people do what (or who) they want, I say. But some stories catch my eye thanks to the way they intertwine with societal sexual mores.
This one, from Gunma Prefecture’s Maebashi, has intrigued me because it involves a mix of sticky issues, including potential workplace harassment and a famous Japanese institution that thrives off of adultery and sex work. It also involves something else that is still, sadly, too much of a rarity in Japan: a woman in politics.
10+ love hotel visits to “consult” with a fellow employee
The story involves Mayor Ogawa Akira, 42, who the people of Maebashi elected to office in February 2024 for the first time. It was also the first time that the city of over 325,000 people, Gunma’s second-largest, had elected a female mayor.
The tabloid News Post Seven describes Ogawa as something of a political wunderkind. Born in Chiba Prefecture, she moved to Gunma after graduating from college. She obtained her law license and focused on representing domestic violence victims. In 2011, she became a prefectural assemblyperson at age 28, serving for four terms. Ogawa, a political independent, defeated the Liberal Democratic Party/Kōmeitō-backed candidate to become mayor of Maebashi in 2024.
The trouble began on September 24th, when News Post Seven reported that they had photographed Ogawa making repeat visits to a roadside love hotel with one of her subordinates, a married man.
The way the story came out is wild. According to Seven’s report, a woman who suspected her husband of having an affair trailed him and was surprised to see him on a dinner date with the city’s mayor.
The woman didn’t see her husband do anything untoward with Ogawa. However, she discovered Ogawa repeatedly meeting another man who worked for the city. Ogawa is single, but the man is married with children. “There’s no way she didn’t know this,” a friend of the suspicious woman insists.
The tabloid tracked Ogawa and her alleged lover, discovering they met multiple times – including on two consecutive days during which Maebashi was suffering heavy rains and under a severe weather warning. That raised questions about whether Ogawa was letting her personal life interfere with her duties as mayor. The man’s status as a city employee also raises the potential for workplace harassment.
Strictly business…in a love hotel?
Ogawa held a press conference the evening of the 24th to address the allegations. She admitted she had visited a love hotel with the city employee over 10 times. However, she insisted there were “no male-female relations” involved and that the visits were strictly work-related.
Now, you may ask: why hold work meetings in a love hotel? Ogawa claimed it was for “privacy” reasons, and that other locations – restaurants, karaoke boxes, etc. – were too public.
“It’s in my nature to always put on a smile and a happy attitude in front of our citizens and employees, and not to betray any worry,” she pleaded. “I haven’t had many people to whom I can confide my worries and feelings. That’s led to me getting depressed as I grapple with a number of issues.” That, she maintains, is what led her to “consulting” her fellow employee.
Reporters asked Ogawa why she wouldn’t meet the man in a business hotel. Or, for that matter, her own home, given that she’s single. She didn’t have a great answer to either question.
Maebashi’s city assembly had already voted to call for the mayor’s resignation. The body was also considering a vote of no confidence. Ogawa also submitted her own proposal to the assembly, asking to continue as mayor with a 50% pay cut.
In the end, however, the pressure proved too much for Ogawa. On November 25th, she posted a lengthy comment to her X account saying she would submit her resignation to the assembly on November 27th (yesterday).
Can Ogawa get re-elected?
The assembly will vote soon to hold a special election for mayor, which will happen in either December or January. And Ogawa says she might throw her hat into the ring.
“I feel a strong responsibility to finish advancing Maebashi to a sound future,” she wrote.
If that sounds far-fetched, keep in mind that stranger things have happened in Japanese politics. In 2024, voters in Hyogo Prefecture re-elected governor Saitō Motohiko despite numerous and credible allegations of power harassment. Comedian Matsumoto Hitoshi is currently making his own self-funded comeback after credible allegations of sexual assault.
Others have tried and failed to hang on. In Kishiwada City, Osaka, Mayor Nagano Kōhei went so far as to dissolve the city legislature after it came out that he paid a woman over a sexual assault lawsuit. The gambit didn’t work, and he eventually lost his re-election bid. (As well he should have.)
It remains to be seen whether voters will overlook Ogawa’s indiscretions and put her back in power. The fact is that, even with its first-ever female Prime Minister, Japan is hurting for women in politics. The country’s low female political representation is a consistent factor in its low Gender Gap ranking.
I don’t think Ogawa’s chances are very high. In Japan, as elsewhere around the globe, women are often held to a higher standard than men. Again, though, stranger things have happened…
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Sources
《前橋・42歳女性市長が“連日ラブホ”》昼も夜も土曜日もお盆も…お気に入りは“ロードサイドラブホ” お相手は部下の既婚・市幹部 公用車を使って合流、男性の車に乗り換えて… News Post Seven
《「打ち合わせ」していたラブホ内部は…》「部屋の半分以上がベッド」「露天風呂つき」前橋・42歳女性市長が既婚の市幹部と入ったラブホテルの内装. News Post Seven
＜1分で解説＞前橋市の小川晶市長が27日辞職…なぜ今？ 再出馬は. Mainichi Shimbun
【全文公開】“ラブホテル密会” 小川晶・前橋市長の謝罪会見【前編】「最初にホテルへ誘ったのはどちらから？」記者と小川晶市長の一問一答（9月24日夜）. TBS Newsdig
前橋市長、きょう辞職 出直し選への出馬焦点 知事「決断遅すぎた」. Asahi Shimbun
