Ban on marriage of women above 25 years of age

The birth crisis in Japan is a thorny, worrying and difficult issue, nothing new for a country that has seen its birth rate fall to historic lows for years. Politician and novelist Naoki Hyakuta, one of the founders of the Japanese Conservative Party, has, however, managed to take the debate to a new extreme, causing a political earthquake that forced him and other leaders of his party to apologize. Is done.

The reason is very simple. Although Hyakuta assured that these are “science fiction” ideas that he does not share, during a conversation on his YouTube channel he used “dystopian analogies”, which caused people in Japan – admittedly, among critics – to criticize this. Have started talking all kinds of far-reaching things. Concepts such as preventing women over the age of 25 from marrying or removing the uterus of women who are in their thirties.

What has happened? Whether he sought it or not, whether he responded with a calculated strategy or a mistake, novelist Naoki Hyakuta, co-founder and leader of the Japanese Conservative Party, has slipped into the center of the debate over Japan’s birth rate crisis. And its formation is relatively young – it was founded just over a year ago – and its representation in institutions is modest. It won only three seats during the October House of Representatives elections.

Neither one nor the other has prevented the reflections issued by Hyakuta on his YouTube channel and in which he addresses the decline in the Japanese birth rate from causing a huge stir. That and an even bigger controversy.

What did he actually say? His words have been repeated by some of the most influential media in Japan, such as Kyodo News Agency, The Mainichi, The Asashi or The Japan News. Originally, during his conversation on YouTube, focusing on how to increase the birth rate, Hyakuta talked about possibilities such as a law that would prevent single women over the age of 25 from marrying. Is, prevents women from going to university after the age of 18 or even mentions it. Kyodo gives credence to the “imaginary idea” that “women will have their uterus removed when they are over 30.”

But… are these proposals? After a huge uproar, Hyakuta quickly clarified that his words had been taken out of context. Furthermore, he assured that it was during the YouTube broadcast that he clarified that these were “science fiction” ideas of a novelist and “something that should not happen.” She stressed that the aim was to “explain in a simple way” the “time frame” it takes for women to give birth to a child. Yesterday Hyakuta acknowledged in any case that his comments were “extremely harsh”. “I want to take it back and apologize.”

“I meant that we cannot change the social structure unless we do something that goes far,” Hyakuta insisted in statements printed in the newspaper. AsashiYesterday, during an event in Nagoya in support of a candidate from his party, the novelist admitted in any case that his expression was “rude and shocking.” “Some people may consider them horrible.”

Is this something new? This is not the first controversy Hyakuta has grappled with. Despite his party’s youth and modest institutional representation, the novelist has already generated controversy by denouncing the 1937 Nanjing massacre carried out by Japanese troops in China, or the American attacks on Japan during the World War II war as “genocide.” However, his latest controversy has generated a veritable earthquake that has forced other party leaders to intervene and generated criticism from political rivals and citizens.

“I can’t believe that a Japanese politician would say something like that. I can only see those comments as a call for violence against women,” Yamanashi Gakuin University professor Sumie Kawakami lamented in This Week in Asia. For Aichi Governor Hideki Omura, the conservative leader’s words were also “indescribably horrifying.”

Image | Ifan Nuriyana (Unsplash)

In Xataka Japan’s diapers are so old that a local diaper company is going to start marketing them only to adults.