Tokyo politician under fire after blaming LGBT community for falling birth rate

[rpannier]

Last edited Tue Oct 6, 2020, 11:21 PM - Edit history (1)

A local politician of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has come under fire for claiming last month that his north Tokyo ward would "cease to exist" if the rights of sexual minorities are protected by law.

"This is impossible, but if all Japanese women were lesbian or all Japanese men were gay, then do you think the next generation of people will be born?" Masateru Shiraishi asked on Sept. 25 at an assembly session of Tokyo's Adachi Ward, in comments that appeared to blame sexual minorities for Japan's falling number of births.

The 78-year-old assemblyman made the remark when asking local government officials about the ward's total fertility rate — the average number of children a woman will bear in her lifetime.

snip

"I do not intend to intervene in the life of someone who is lesbian or gay," the veteran assembly member said. But he added, "Getting married, having children and raising them in a normal way is very important for people," arguing it is crucial to teach such views to students at schools.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/10/06/national/masateru-shiraishi-adachi-tokyo-lgbt-discrimination/

The guy is a douche
I'm grateful I don't live in Tokyo so he would be my rep
Unfortunately, the LDP has a slew of these ignorant jerks
As do some of the opposition parties here in Japan

[Claustrum]

1. Asian countries tend to be much more conservative when it comes to gay marriages or gay issues

What they don't realize is, for most LGBT couples, they want children and a family just as much as other couples. If you let them get married and get surrogates, they will have children just the same as other couples. But since they are still mostly stuck in the gay = bad era, it's hard to see any changes soon.

[Hekate]

2. Odd that he doesn't call for a return to the old ways, where marriages were arranged...

...regardless of the desires of the couples involved. Yukio Mishima (“The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea” etc. ) was not the only man who had a male lover and was married to a woman so that the family name would go on.

Japan has suffered from a declining birthrate for some decades, afaik. The farming countrysides are hollowing out, leaving old people behind. Young men in the cities don’t seem inclined to marry in a hurry, and I don’t think they are all gay. Young women who want more in life than early marriage and kids in a cramped little apartment are not necessarily lesbians.

There’s definitely social problems involved — but the elderly politician seems to be flailing about for causes and solutions.