Gaffe-prone Japan deputy PM turns ire on young women

[progree]

Last edited Mon Dec 8, 2014, 01:24 AM - Edit history (2)

Source: Agence France-Presse

After telling Japan's growing ranks of elderly they should "hurry up and die", Finance Minister Taro Aso has turned his well-worn gaffe gun on "people who don't give birth".

The former prime minister, whose mouth has a habit of running away with him, said pensioners were not to blame for the spiralling social welfare costs of a rapidly ageing society.

"There are many people who are creating the image that (the increasing number of) elderly people is bad, but more problematic is people who don't give birth," Aso said in a speech in Sapporo, local media reported Monday.

(snip)

Japan has a birth rate -- the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime -- of around 1.4, far below replacement level.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/gaffe-prone-japan-deputy-pm-turns-ire-young-035249275.html

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Emphasis added by me.

What more can I say about this?

By the way, in other news about Japan, I just saw this from an hour ago:

Japan recession worse than thought: data, AFP, 12/7/14
http://news.yahoo.com/japan-revises-july-september-gdp-contraction-0-5-000414834--finance.html

The economy shrank 0.5 percent quarter-on-quarter, worse than the 0.4 percent estimated in initial data released three weeks ago, the Cabinet Office said. ... The drop came after a 1.7 percent contraction in the April-June quarter, meeting a common definition of a recession as two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

On an annualised rate, the economy shrank 1.9 percent in the third quarter against the initially-estimated fall of 1.6 percent.

[MisterP]

1. sounds like the natalist nut Ishihara

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shintaro_Ishihara

it's the same milieu that gave us the porn star that died in a suicide plane attack on the yakuza

[DeSwiss]

2. The man is a fucking idiot.

- But then Abe is too, so he fits right in.....


K&R

Anything to take the conversation OFF the economy!!!

[davidpdx]

3. Well and it is the older generation that is keeping the conservanuts in power

Korea has pretty much the same situation. If it had not been for the elderly we would not have gotten stuck with Lee Myung "ferret face" Bok and "Princess" Park Geun Hye.

[progree]

4. Yup. Another similiarity is the fertility rate (in lifetime births per woman)

I just Googled:

south korea birth rate

(having rememembered seeing a surprising low figure)

and at the very top it shows a graph, and this text:

China 1.66
Japan 1.41
South Korea: 1.30 births per woman (2012)

S.K and China both had a 6.0 fertility rate in the 1960's (Japan's was 2.0 back then)

U.S.'s is 1.88 in 2012
North Korea's is 2.00 in 2012

[davidpdx]

8. Yeah it is low

Korea is starting to allow more immigrants (though which is good).

[rpannier]

6. Agree on Korea disagree Japan

Japan has pretty much been a one party system, with one two periods of opposition party rule

The ruling party has a sizable group of supporters in their 20's and 30's.

Much of the population believes that the ruling party is better suited to bringing back Japan's glory economic days

The opposition is about as well coordinated as the opposition party in South Korea is (The Saenuri Party may have stumbled, but the Unified Democratic Party is also dropping in the polls. The sinking of the Saewol, while tragic, is hardly a platform for a party to use.)

The Ruling Party in Japan also speaks to a growing disenchantment among many in Japan to what they perceive as the constant finger pointing at them about WW II. Friends of mine in Japan are quick to point out that the US Army used 'comfort women' after Japan had surrendered.
When MacArthur got to Japan he was infuriated at the lack of discipline and that the US soldiers were picking girls as young as 12.

[davidpdx]

7. If the liberal party in Korea doesn't get its shit together they are going to be in the minority

for a long time. I am able to vote in local elections, but not for National Assembly and President.

[rpannier]

5. Taro Aso is the money man for the ruling party

Truth is, the party would like to shed itself of him, but he is great at collecting donations and knows where all the skeletons are buried
There is about 7-10% of the Japanese population that agree wholeheartedly with almost everything he says.
His influence and the influence of his supporters is greater than their actual numbers because he's great at framing issues and creating and manipulating wedge issues
Rumors have circulated that some of the wealthiest families in Japan made huge money using slave labor during WWII, which is part of what drives the factions opposed to admitting any wrong-doing at all

[bemildred]

9. Tsk. Things not going well in the breeding pens? nt

[Derek V]

10. His name is Aso?

What, they don't have the letter "L" in Japan?