Maternity Mark for Expectant Mothers in Japan

11 Jul 2007 Category: Conscientious Design, Features, Japan

Maternity Mark for Expectant Mothers in Japan

Please kindly offer your seat if you see anyone on a Tokyo train sporting a key ring with this "Maternity Mark"!

Oh, cute! But what is it for, this white key ring with a sweet illustration of a smiling mother and child, saying “There’s a baby in my tummy.” If you are in Tokyo, you may have recently spotted a lady in a train with this “Maternity Mark” dangling from her bag… In fact, these special Maternity Mark key rings have been distributed at train stations and local authorities in Tokyo since last year to make the public more considerate about pregnant women. PingMag will let you know how to act accordingly if you spot one of those.

Written by Chiemi
Photos by Ayana Watanabe
Translated by Natsumi Yamane

According to a recent survey, “assistance at staircases” and “being offered a seat on public transport” ranked high on the wish lists of many pregnant women and mothers of small children. At the same time, “being offered a seat on crowded trains or buses,” “help with carrying strollers” and “being asked if assistance was needed” were the acts of kindness most appreciated by mothers and soon-to-be mothers when out and about.

From a leaflet by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. The left side includes things that bother pregnant women, such as buildings without escalators, and people smoking in public places. The right side shows what they appreciate, including being offered a seat on public transportation.
(Source: Results from a survey on outings during child-raising by The Foundation for Children’s Future)

Many of you might feel that considerations for expectant mothers go without saying and always offer a helping hand whenever you see mothers-to-be. But as you can see from our “East meets West: Maternity Design” article from last year, it’s sometimes hard to spot pregnant women in Japan, where maternity fashions that hide swollen bellies are much more popular than in Western countries. It’s also impossible to judge women in early stages of pregnancy from their appearance, unless they happen to be reading a maternity magazine. There also seems to be a fair number of people who hesitate to offer their seat, in case their judgement from appearances might be wrong…

A sign for “Priority Seats” on a Tokyo train, encouraging passengers to give seats to parents with small children, pregnant women, the elderly and injured. Well, it would be easy to tell if there was anyone with that big belly…

Expectant mothers, especially in the early stages of pregnancy, often suffer from bad morning sickness, diarrhoea or constipation, and need to make frequent trips to the restroom. Regardless of all of these physical discomforts, they must also take care to protect the baby growing in their still unnoticeable bellies while going out.

One mother from Tokyo said, “I had to go on my own to a routine check at my doctor on a hot day in summer. I was still suffering from bad morning sickness at that time. I was waiting for a taxi on the pavement, but before I caught one, I felt so sick that I couldn’t remain standing on my feet any longer. It was so bad that I couldn’t even speak, so I had to almost crawl to go get help from a building nearby. During pregnancy, going out alone can fill you with anxiety and there are times when you will seek help even from complete strangers. Help from passers-by or strangers always left me overwhelmed with gratitude.”


A mother-to-be with a belly that is not at all noticeable yet. She says she has yet to be offered a seat on a crowded train….

Another lady who’s 3 months pregnant. Except for the “Maternity Mark,” you would never know she is pregnant, would you?

It was at the end of 2005, when Healthy Parents and Children 21 – a Maternal and Child Health Plan initiated by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare – began collecting ideas for the design of a Maternity Mark from the public, in an effort to help create a friendly environment for pregnant women. A call for submission was put on the Ministry’s homepage, and 1,661 ideas were gathered from around the country in the space of 6 weeks.


This work by Akira Senuma was selected as a work of distinction.

Another work of distinction by Kazuhiro Aoki. So cute!

A work submitted by the Saitama branch of Imperial Gift Foundation’s “Boshi-Aiiku-kai” featuring a mother and child side by side with closed eyes was selected for the winning design and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced this work as the official “Maternity Mark” in March, 2006.


A poster introducing the new official Maternity Mark. You can download this data from the Ministry’s website.

This key ring with the Maternity Mark has been distributed at stations and municipal offices in the Tokyo area since last August. Some local authorities have also started distributing the same key ring when expectant mothers receive their “Mother and Child Health Handbook.”

Since the August of last year, 16 railway companies in the capital including Tokyo Metro have distributed around 65 thousand key rings with this Maternity Mark free of charge in a campaign that is still continuing. Local authorities that had been using other maternity marks are beginning to produce pin badges and emblems using this new design for better recognition. Also, Maternity Mark can be used freely as it’s available for download at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s website.

Bustling with lively children – “National Children’s Castle” in Aoyama.

The Maternity Mark is not only for securing priority seats on public transport, but it’s also meant to encourage such considerations as refraining from smoking near pregnant women in public spaces and offering assistance at staircases, all in an effort to create a friendly environment for pregnant women. If you see anyone wearing this mark in town or on public transport, please assist them kindly by giving them your seat or by offering a helping hand.

And finally, many thanks to everyone at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare for your kind support!

31 Comments

  1. do you really think that a 2 month pregnant women needs to have someone give her a seat on a train! caaam on…those seats are for heavily pregnant (6+months) women…..

    Posted by: Dr $oil on July 11th, 2007 at 7:46 pm

  2. a pregnant woman, no matter how many months pregnant, is a fragile woman. i think those keychains are too cute. i always like to see design that is wonderfully cute and has purpose.

    we need more of that where i live.

    Posted by: dendoo on July 11th, 2007 at 8:30 pm

  3. What about that stylish bag in the first image?!? Where can one score one of those?

    Posted by: Ian on July 11th, 2007 at 8:45 pm

  4. I disagree with Dr $0il. Pregnant women suffer from morning sickness and can have miscarriages too. Have you been on a train in Japan at rush hour?

    Posted by: Ling on July 11th, 2007 at 10:33 pm

  5. Dr. Soil is obviously a man.

    Posted by: Trinka on July 11th, 2007 at 11:24 pm

  6. [...] PingMag have now done a piece that goes into a bit more into detail. The above images, taken from PingMag’s post, are a couple of the designs that were also submitted to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare [...]

    Posted by: ongoing baby trend « robotomi on July 12th, 2007 at 1:26 am

  7. What they really need is to give pregnant women priority in the bathrooms! No matter if it’s 2 mos or 6 mos, when a pregger has to go she has to go!

    Gives new meaning to the term ‘priority seat’ :)

    Posted by: Hebi-kai on July 12th, 2007 at 6:52 am

  8. my wife suffered from bad morning sickness from the first month and if we lived in japan she would have really used one of these. also to those like dr soil maybe in the “old days” women would work the fields and have their baby and go back to work the same day but infant and maternal mortality was quite high also

    Posted by: teruoS on July 12th, 2007 at 7:00 am

  9. wow great idea ^^

    Posted by: Ran Mao on July 12th, 2007 at 7:13 am

  10. Haha nice article :)

    Posted by: rayk on July 12th, 2007 at 9:03 am

  11. Well, my wife also has such a mark, but people don’t really pay attention for it. And WHEN they notice they just tend to ignore it. Useless.

    Posted by: Dengar on July 12th, 2007 at 11:37 am

  12. The only problem I cna see with this is, there are weirdoes out there that can actually target pregnant women for it. It’s agood idea, just doesn’t take human nature into account.

    Posted by: glyph on July 12th, 2007 at 12:56 pm

  13. its really luck for these mothers-to-be whos living in tokyo. :D

    Posted by: x-noise on July 12th, 2007 at 1:51 pm

  14. geezzz…. this is a great idea! i wonder when my country can actually think to adopt.

    Posted by: herdi on July 12th, 2007 at 3:01 pm

  15. pointless! nobody is going to notice that in a city with everyone having things dangeling on their bags… it is too small, totally non-striking and - - I don’t think that when people notice it they are going to do anything. what is wrong about asking for a seat and actually TALKING to people?

    Posted by: xxx on July 12th, 2007 at 4:24 pm

  16. Denegar — When I was hugely pregnant — key word here is huge, hey I’m a gaijin!–I would TELL kids (20s) to get the heck out of the priority seat and let me sit down. They always looked so surprised (”Whaaa? you wanna sit down??”)

    I often do that still when I see an obviously infirm old lady with a cane and a 20 yr old sitting in a priority seat pretending not to notice. Feel free to join in! Let’s start a trend!

    Dr $oil is obviously either an ignorant young man or a curmudgeonly old man who never had a pregnant wife. Even at a few weeks your body starts changing and for many, there’s backaches and nausea. Plus there are high/medium risk pregnancies where the woman should sit down as much as possible.

    Posted by: pat on July 12th, 2007 at 4:29 pm

  17. I loves all of the designs on this website. :)

    Posted by: HDR Photography on July 12th, 2007 at 4:38 pm

  18. perhaps we should start giving men who are at work till all hours of the morning 7 days a week - to help japan’s dying economy out of it’s slump and pay for their wife/children’s upkeep little tickets too….in order to stop them dying of 過労死。

    Posted by: dr $oil on July 12th, 2007 at 5:09 pm

  19. We are not talking about Japanese business men here.

    Posted by: chiemi on July 12th, 2007 at 7:57 pm

  20. It’s a nice idea, and could have been useful for my pregnant wife when she was in Tokyo (gone back to her hometown now, for the birth). However, I think it’s too small and people won’t notice it. I also think people should just ask people who are sitting in priority seats, and don’t need to be there, to budge!The number of times people pretended to be asleep when my wife was standing in front of them was incredible. And these weren’t just 20 year olds - they were men and women of all ages. Sometimes Japanese are just plain rude.

    Posted by: Tom on July 13th, 2007 at 12:14 am

  21. when my wife was pregnant, I once woke up a young man fast asleep on the “priority seat” . I’ve never seen someone move so fast!

    Posted by: tony on July 13th, 2007 at 12:57 pm

  22. when my wife was pregnant, I once woke up a young man fast asleep on the “priority seat” . I’ve never seen someone move so fast!

    Posted by: tony on July 13th, 2007 at 12:58 pm

  23. very cute and useful,

    Posted by: Sahar Ajami on July 13th, 2007 at 5:09 pm

  24. I feel that this has been tried or at least muted in other places but it good that it has been put into effect somewhere. True it isn’t perfect and it relies on the manners of the person willing to give up their seat. Yet as the article says, unless you see a bump, it’s difficult to tell if a woman on pregnant in the early stages but they still need the help.

    Posted by: MiNGLED on July 14th, 2007 at 11:49 pm

  25. I tend to give my seat to pregnant women, old people and those who OBVIOUSLY need it, but more than once I have been coldly told off by the person I was offering my seat to.
    A couple of time I wondered if they just werent pregnant (on a well-built woman it can be harder to be sure at early stages) or did not consider themselves that old… made me feel rude and stooopid… :-/

    Posted by: Yann on July 25th, 2007 at 6:44 pm

  26. I had a similar thing that was given out by London Transport when I was pregnant in 2006. It was a “baby on board” badge (pin for those in the US) in the style of the London Underground logo. It did work, and was really useful during the first 3 months of pregnancy when I was exhausted!

    Posted by: Olimite on July 30th, 2007 at 5:49 am

  27. [...] Civility is a primary intellectual virtue These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]

    Posted by: Ambassador Sestito » Blog Archive » on August 20th, 2007 at 12:43 pm

  28. I think this is an excellent idea. I don’t use much public transportation here in the United States, but it would be nice to have keychain or pin like this here. Something to make people aware that I am pregnant even though I don’t have a huge belly yet. 3 months or 6 months, it doesn’t make a difference. People are so rude sometimes when I just feel sick, or down right tired because I am not noticably pregnant. It would be very useful.

    Posted by: Hachi on August 23rd, 2007 at 6:21 am

  29. This is an incredibly awesome idea, but would never work in America (at least not in my town). When I was 7+ months pregnant and big as a house, most people would still let doors slam in my face and blow a lung-full of smoke my way!!

    Now if only people would stop glaring at me for nursing my baby…

    Posted by: Beth on August 24th, 2007 at 4:45 am

  30. Beth, please find a private place to nurse your baby. Exposing your privates in public may be kosher in your western cultures but it’s not welcome in Asia.

    Posted by: Erick on September 24th, 2007 at 7:18 pm

  31. That’s a very considerate idea.

    Posted by: Okinawa Travel on November 24th, 2007 at 6:13 am

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