Japanese Official Calls Women 'Birth-Giving Machines'

[OhioChick]

POSTED: 9:45 am EST January 28, 2007

TOKYO -- Japan's health minister described women as "birth-giving machines" in a speech on the falling birthrate, drawing criticism despite an immediate apology.

"The number of women between the ages of 15 and 50 is fixed. The number of birth-giving machines (and) devices is fixed, so all we can ask is that they do their best per head," Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa said in a speech Saturday, the Asahi and Mainichi newspapers reported.

Yanagisawa reportedly apologized even as he made the remarks, and later told Kyodo News agency the language he used was "too uncivil."

But Democratic Party leader Yukio Hatoyama was unmoved by his expression of regret.

"It was extremely rude to women. Having children or not having children is naturally a matter that women and households are free (to decide themselves)," Hatoyama told reporters Sunday.

http://www.newsnet5.com/family/10864539/detail.html

"Birth-giving machines?" :wtf:

[Ezlivin]

1. Wrong!

They are called Baby Makers® and it's a registered trademark of the Right Wing Conservatives.

[skooooo]

6. lol

[Jamastiene]

35. No, we are called "Baby Making Punching Bags®!"

FYI They'd never say anything the least bit positive when talking about women and they would always share the fact that they'd like to physically hurt us.

[BayCityProgressive]

2. nice

[TheDebbieDee]

3. This sounds like something a * appointee would say! n/t

[DeSwiss]

4. Hmmmm....

....so does that make men: "Death-Giving Machines"????

Just askin...... :shrug:

[Vinca]

5. I didn't realize the fundie movement extended to Japan. nt

[slackmaster]

8. My ex-wife applied for a job at a Japanese company here one time

Kyocera in San Diego treats female employees worse than the bank she used to work for in South Carolina.

There is plenty of information about womens' rights in Japan (or lack thereof). Rather than using this as a segue to take cheap shots at people who have nothing to do with the story, I recommend you spend a few minutes reading up on the real subject. You may find yourself shocked as well as educated.

[Vinca]

10. Actually, I am rather well educated and it was an attempt at humor

you obviously didn't appreciate. (Read about the fundamentalist "full quiver" movement.)

[slackmaster]

13. Don't quit your day job

:argh:

[Vinca]

17. I'm not going to say what I want to say. I'm not going to say what I

want to say. I'm not going to say what I want to say. No need to be suspended over a . . . never mind.

[slackmaster]

18. Well then, please entertain us

Say something funny.

;-0

[donheld]

34. It's sad some just don't have a sense of humor

:shrug:

[LanternWaste]

42. Deep breath... deep breath... deep breath

Deep breath... deep breath... deep breath

...then aim and shoot

By golly, that last part was uncalled for, but I guess I'm in that kind of mood today.

[SayWhatYo]

22. Oh please...

Different strokes for different folks. Just 'cause you do not find something funny, it doesn't mean they can't share things they may find funny... Let's have a group hug...

*kidding about the last part, I hate touching.

[Scairp]

19. Actually

It's the "quiver-full" gang that are having 85 little white kids each, per some obscure Biblical reference that may not even mean have kids from puberty til' menopause.

Edited to add links.

http://www.quiverfull.com/

http://www.quiverfull.org/

http://www.thenewhomemaker.com/quiverfullconvicted

The most well known "quiver-full" family-http://www.duggarfamily.com/articles/large-family.php

[badgerpup]

29. Wasn't there something about UberFertilizer Duggar running for office?

IIRC, he wanted to run for Congress or something like that.

People like him and his wife are SCARY. :scared:

[Scairp]

31. Yes

I believe he ran for a state office and if memory serves he did not win.

Edited to add link to his (unsuccessful) campaign website, extolling his completely right wing views.

http://www.jimbob.info/statesenate06.html

Edited again to add per Wikipedia-SHE'S PREGNANT AGAIN!!!

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

Here comes #17. Geez.

[boilinmad]

40. The Duggar story...

....has got to be, hands down, the SICKEST thing ive read about in a long time. Not just the idiotic parents, but the RECIPES on their website!!!!!

[JerseygirlCT]

23. It's not the fundie movement necessarily

but I think a great deal about Japanese culture is very conservative, especially as regards gender roles.

[1monster]

7. Or as a Bush Administration member called women between the

ages of fifteen and fifty, "pre-pregnant."

I sure wish there were some way for men to experience pregnancy and motherhood. I'll bet they'd be singing an entirely different song...

[Demeter]

9. They Might Get Addicted--and Love It

all that oxytocin, the bonding hormone....one endless narcissistic love cycle....

[Trillo]

11. I wonder if it's possible to have a modern, stable economy

without the continual influx of new humans (each one which represents future economic activity, future labor dollars particularly).

The U.S. Government reportedly uses Certificates of Live Birth as collateral. Seems to be tied into the Federal Reserve and the issuing of currency somehow. If true, it would seem quite the incentive to encourage childbirth.

I wonder (if the above is true, it certainly was NEVER presented to me in econ 101) about Global Warming and since it seems a function of too many people earthwide, whether any legislators will have the spine to tackle the Certificate of Live Birth incentive for childbirth with respect toward U.S. government spending.

Sorry if this was too off-topic, its simply what I thought of when reading the excerpt above.

[sutz12]

14. This experiment is underway...

It is a statistical fact that as women become better educated and achieve more independence and economic options, birth rates go down. Consevatives seem to view this with horror. Liberals, less so.

[AlCzervik]

12. he followed that up by demanding the "Birth giving machines" get in the kitchen

and make him a sammich.

[barb162]

15. LOL (and wash the floor afterwards)

[JVS]

21. don't forget the beer

[Megahurtz]

36. Okay! n/t

[barb162]

16. then he's a sperm donating machine.

oops, I'm sorry

[sarcasmo]

20. Those Japanese sure know their Electronics.

[Ian David]

24. I think you're misinterpreting this.

He was just putting forward a new challenge for ASIMO.


Very good! Now, let's see him squeeze out a baby!

[USA No. 1]

25. How do you say "foot in mouth" in Japanese?

[Art_from_Ark]

26. At first, I thought something had been lost in the translation

But the original Japanese was "umu kikai", which can, indeed, be translated as "birth-giving machines" if a certain combination of Chinese characters is used to write "kikai". However, if another set (actually, only the second character is different) is used to write "kikai", it can mean "birthing opportunity". The article below uses the first combination.

http://smartwoman.nikkei.co.jp/news/article.aspx?id=20070129ax012n1

[abelenkpe]

27. Some towns

in Japan, I read online a while ago, are actually offering money for families that have three children or more. Interesting phenomenon. Perhaps a result of an economy where the gap between the rich and poor is increasing? Where all family members need to work to survive? Raising kids is expensive.

Not that any of that justifies such an insensitive statement.

[eridani]

33. Japan is actually a very egalitarian place as far as income distribution

It's also very patriarchal. Stephanie Mencimer has observed that among developed countries, the ones that are most patriarchal and make the most difficult for women to participate in employment outside the home are the ones that have the lowest birthrates.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0106.mencimer.html

If you're skeptical that institutionalized sexism can depress the birth rate, just look at Japan, which has been suffering for years from what American University law professor Joan Williams, director of its gender, family and work program, calls the "rent-strike solution" to sex discrimination. Japan has one of the developed world's most chauvinistic societies. It didn't pass its first equal-opportunity law until 1985, and even then, it only "requested" that employers "make efforts" not to discriminate. Japan did not officially outlaw sex discrimination until 1999.

Japanese women quickly disappear from the workplace after having children. It's not hard to see why. Along with a dearth of child-care facilities and a corporate culture that demands horrendously long hours, Japanese men have shown little interest in helping out around the house. Japanese government studies show that Japanese men contribute a scant 17 minutes a day caring for their children, compared with their wives' two hours and 39 minutes.

<snip>

Those like my sister, stuck in the middle, could try the Marlin Fitzwater approach, and instead of finding different jobs, they could find a different country. Sweden would be a good choice. In the early 1980s, the country was facing a labor shortage and declining fertility rates. Rather than try coercive measures to increase birth rates (like banning abortion or restricting women's educational options) or massive immigration, Sweden chose to make the workplace more accommodating for parents. Swedish women are now guaranteed a year of paid leave after having a baby, the right to work six-hour days with full benefits until their child is in grade school, and subsidized child care.

Sweden's birth rate went from 1.7 in 1980 to 1.9 by 1996, even as the rest of Europe's was declining. Women and children were the clear winners. In Sweden, college-educated women now have almost the same workforce participation rates as men and close parity in earnings, even as more women (and men!) stay home during their children's early years than in the U.S. But relocating to Sweden seems a little unworkable. So here's another solution to help speed change a bit: Let's make the baby boycott official.

If politicians want babies to kiss on the campaign trail, they're going to have to ante up, starting with part-time jobs with full benefits, tax equity, paid maternity leave, Social Security benefits for stay-at-home parents, and subsidized child-care centers---with well-paid teachers. Even more important, they'll have to finally admit that the minivan does not qualify as a child-care center, and make the school day match the work day---complete with PE, music, sports, and other enriching activities on site. (Think of the traffic jams that could be eliminated!) Men must sign binding contracts to start doing laundry, mastering the vacuum cleaner, and driving the carpool a few times a week. Then---and only then---should women agree to fire up the oven. After a few years without new life to inspire, project their expectations upon, and inherit their empires, men just might come around. And if they don't, childfree women will have plenty of time to take over the world and do the job for them.

[NuttyFluffers]

39. wow, that's really cool information. kinda "Women's Lib a Must for a Society's Survival"

i'm probably taking something too far in that conclusion, but it makes a good argument for egalitarianism. thanks.

[sweetheart]

28. well, be positive, its a step up from 'penis mittens'

Japan has deeeeeeeep misogyny, good the improvements! :-)

[Name removed]

30. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[girl gone mad]

32. And they wonder why their birthrate is declining?

Perhaps if starting a family wasn't seen as practically the end of all freedom and independence for a Japaneese woman, more would be interested in it. Demeaning motherhood in this manner is no way to change that perception (or reality).

[mitchum]

37. Their misogyny is matched only by their racism

[Eugene]

38. AP: Japan Health Minister Rebuked for Remark

Japan Health Minister Rebuked for Remark

By KOZO MIZOGUCHI
The Associated Press
Monday, January 29, 2007; 10:31 PM

TOKYO -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe rebuked Japan's health minister Monday for calling
women "birth machines," a remark that caused an outcry in the country.

But Abe dismissed calls for the embattled minister to resign over the comment.

"I reprimanded him severely," Abe said, adding that he saw no reason for Health Minister
Hakuo Yanagisawa to step down. "From now on, I hope he will remain fully devoted in his
job and obtain the people's understanding."

Abe's comments came just hours after a group of female lawmakers called for Yanagisawa's
removal.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/29/AR2007012902211.html

[eppur_se_muova]

41. UPDATE: Japan gaffe minister 'must quit' (BBC)

Opposition parties in Japan are pressing Health Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa to step down for calling women "birth-giving machines".

The Democratic Party and two smaller parties are threatening to boycott budget hearings in parliament if Mr Yanagisawa, 71, does not quit.

The Democratic Party called the remarks inexcusable and said they violated women's human rights.

Mr Yanagisawa has apologised for his comments, which he made at the weekend.

The gaffe has caused embarrassment to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose popularity is slipping and who has already had one minister resign over political funding.
***
more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6313265.stm