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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Japanese MP says single women a state burden |
| 2018-05-14 |
| [DAWN] A Japanese politician has come under fire after saying women should have several children or risk becoming a burden on the state. Kanji Kato, a 72-year-old MP in Prime Minister Shizo Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), said newlyweds should raise at least three children. The minister in charge of women’s empowerment on Saturday lashed out at his remarks. "It was a terrible gaffe," Seiko Noda, who is also internal affairs minister and a senior member of the LDP, said in a speech, according to local media. Giving birth was different to making products, she said, adding: "The number of children won’t increase by just making such remarks." Earlier this week Kato reportedly told a group of LDP members: "I ask bridal couples to bear and raise more than three children for sure." Kato also said he often told young women that if they do not get married and have no offspring, they will end up in a care home run with the taxes of other people’s children. Kato later retracted his remarks. Rapidly-greying Japan has one of the world’s lowest birth rates and authorities are trying out several policies to encourage people to have more children. Last year about 941,000 children were born in Japan, the lowest since the national survey started in 1899. In 2003, former prime minister Yoshiro Mori drew fire for suggesting childless women should be denied welfare payments in old age. In 2007, then-health minister Hakuo Yanagisawa infamously referred to women as "child-bearing machines". |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #8 Japanese science has a a chance to stave off extinction if the birth rate doesn't rise again at some point. If the people won't stave off extinction by doing what comes naturally, tell widdem. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2018-05-14 14:10 |
| #7 |
| Posted by: Woodrow 2018-05-14 12:52 |
| #6 They should consider paying for the DNA of different ladies who don't want children. Then the young can continue enjoying their tentacle videos, living with the parents, and playing computer games while Japanese science has a a chance to stave off extinction if the birth rate doesn't rise again at some point. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2018-05-14 11:08 |
| #5 Exactly. Japan is crowded. Increases in living standards have often accompanied falling populations as rents fall and wages rise. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2018-05-14 04:06 |
| #4 Rapidly-greying Japan has one of the world’s lowest birth rates and authorities are trying out several policies to encourage people to have more children. Population reduction in overcrowded Japan may not be a bad thing. Just don't rip up the social fabric by allowing in millions of foreign colonists to replace those missing workers. |
| Posted by: Knuckles Chomoger6718 2018-05-14 03:22 |
| #3 A woman won't accept a man lower than her. And here I thought Oprah and Stedman were closeted gays. |
| Posted by: Knuckles Chomoger6718 2018-05-14 03:17 |
| #2 More unintended outcomes of science, the birth control pill, and denial of the natural order. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2018-05-14 02:22 |
| #1 Well, he's not wrong. Japanese aren't having children and it's going to destroy them. The real reason is the increase in women's status. A woman won't accept a man lower than her. As her status increases, the pool of acceptable men becomes smaller and smaller. She'd rather stay barren than accept a lesser man. Dismal but true. |
| Posted by: Herb McCoy 2018-05-14 00:50 |