Last Updated:
Naoki Hyakuta of Japan’s Conservative Party said women should be banned from marriage after 25 and their uteruses removed at 30.
Naoki Hyakuta’s remarks on the issue of Japan’s declining birth rates sparked outrage from all walks of life. (Representative Image/Reuters)
The leader of a Japanese conservative party has sparked a major row after he proposed a bunch of bizarre comments to address the nation’s population crisis – such as banning women from marrying after 25 years of age and having their uteruses removed after 30.
Naoki Hyakuta, the founder of Japan’s Conservative Party, made the peculiar claims in a YouTube video on Friday, saying women should not be permitted to attend university from the age of 18 so that they could focus their efforts on producing more babies, and should be banned from marriage after reaching 25, according to South China Morning Post.
His remarks prompted an immediate and strong response with netizens expressing outrage that a senior Japanese politician could say such a thing. The outrage forced Hyakuta to apologise, saying his claims were just “a hypothetical idea” and that he did not personally support the ideas.
‘Science-Fiction Storyline’
Sumie Kawakami, a lecturer at Yamanashi Gakuin University and author of a book on gender issues, expressed her indignation with Hyakuta’s remarks, saying, “I cannot believe that a Japanese politician has said such a thing… I can only see these comments as a call to violence against women.”
Hyakuta later said he framed the ideas as a “science-fiction storyline” to help Japan’s declining birth rate and his comments had been “extremely harsh” against women which he did not advocate. However, this may not be enough to quell the damage caused by his remarks.
Takashi Kawamura, the chairman of Hyakuta’s party which won three seats in the lower house of the Parliament recently, asked him to retract his comments. “I apologise on his behalf to the supporters of the Conservative Party and to the Japanese people,” he said.
Remarks Showed ‘Deep Lack Of Awarenesss’
People from all walks of life condemned Hyakuta’s remarks, including those from the entertainment industry. Actress Tomoko Mariya said the party was “out of control” and that Hyakuta showed a deep “lack of awareness”.
“The idea of taking away reproductive ability if you have not had a child by the age of 30 is terrifying, even as a joke. Besides, do you really think that the declining birth rate is the fault of women?” said another actress Chizuru Higashi, adding that women were unwilling to give birth due to issues related to employment and income.
Author Issui Ogawa was unwilling to accept Hyakuta’s apology by suggesting his remarks were science fiction. “I’m a science fiction writer and I’m not amused that the grotesque idea of removing a girl’s uterus was described as science fiction, while I’m also unhappy at the idea of forcing her to marry and give birth – with penalties attached,” he said.
Japan’s Declining Birth Rates
Japan has constantly battled with declining birth rates, with The average number of children born to a Japanese woman fell to a fresh low of 1.20 in 2023, data from the health ministry showed earlier this year. A majority of single men and women in their late teens and 20s have no desire to ever have a child due to concerns over employment and low income.
Kawakami expressed concern that the standards of Japanese political discourse were declining in the same way as it has elsewhere in the world. “He (Hyakuta) has said something and now there has been a strong reaction he has withdrawn it and apologised, but if there had not been a response then he would not have felt the need to claim he was only speaking hypothetically and to apologise,” she told This Week in Asia.
Drawing parallels with US President-elect Donald Trump’s political campaigns, the author pointed towards the deliberate use of falsehoods and misinformation. She said the danger of politicians manipulating public opinion in Japan was greater as fewer women speak out against misogyny than in the US.
This is not the first time the conservative leader has made such remarks. Hyakuta rose to prominence on the far-right of Japanese politics partly due to his bestselling 2006 novel “The Eternal Zero,” which glorified kamikaze pilots in the closing stages of World War II, according to SCMP. He also said the Tokyo war crimes trials were a “sham” designed to cover up atrocities committed by the United States.
(with agency inputs)
