Shortly before Shinjiro Koizumi’s wife, Christel Takigawa, gave birth to a baby boy last month, the environment minister told reporters during a regular news conference he would be taking time off for paternity leave. It was a revelation that surprised some because after the pair had revealed she was pregnant last summer, Koizumi said in September he would only go so far as to say he would consider taking paternity leave.
Given Koizumi's high public profile owing to his pedigree, his rising political stature and his photogenic particulars, the announcement was touted as indicative of a sea change in Japanese society: An influential male politician was foregoing work obligations to attend to the needs of his family. The foreign press found this story irresistible. Koizumi was supposed to be the bread-winning messiah Japan had been waiting for.
Media outlets in Japan have been less positive. At a previous news conference, Koizumi refused to answer a reporter's question about an article in a weekly magazine that claimed he had not only had an affair with a married woman in 2015, but that he paid for one of their trysts with money from his political fund. Koizumi replied that he doesn't comment on private matters but next month made the paternity leave announcement. Several news outlets wondered: Is that not a private matter, especially since he raised it during a news conference in which, presumably, he's supposed to talk about ministerial matters?