{
  "id": 6138883,
  "title": "Japanese author Kotoe Hashimoto goes viral after giving birth to seventh child",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/07/japanese-author-kotoe-hashimoto-goes-viral-after-giving-birth-to",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-09-07T13:19:15.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Gulf News",
    "slug": "gulf-news",
    "url": "https://gulfnews.com/world/offbeat/japanese-author-kotoe-hashimoto-goes-viral-after-giving-birth-to-seventh-child-1.500666126"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Japanese author Kotoe Hashimoto has gained widespread attention after announcing the birth of her seventh child. Despite a declining birth rate in Japan, Hashimoto's decision to expand her family has sparked conversation. On social media in August, she shared a photo of her newborn and expressed her gratitude to those who supported her during the process. She specifically acknowledged the efforts of medical professionals, writing: \"I express my deepest gratitude to the doctors, midwives, and nurses for their dedicated efforts.\" Hashimoto also called on other Japanese women to consider having more children, stating: \"I believe that now is the time for Japanese women to have children. The rise and fall of our nation depends on the active role of women.\" She revealed on September 2 that she had been discharged from the hospital and that both she and her child were in good health.",
  "summary": "Birth rates in Japan may be slowly crawling higher - 2026’s figure was only 0.8 per cent more than the previous year, according to figures by the country's Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare – but it’s still rare to see multiple children of varied age groups in the same family. Unless you are 37-year-old Japanese author and former political candidate Kotoe Hashimoto, who just went viral for…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}