Yet another anti-LGBT gaffe: why are Japanese MPs so out of touch with modern society?

A senior member of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party has attracted criticism for declaring the “nation would collapse” if everyone was LGBT, the latest in a long line of polarising comments by senior politicians.

The remarks late last week by 74-year-old Katsuei Hirasawa, to a crowd in Yamanashi Prefecture, in central Japan, indicate just how out of touch older generations of politicians are with modern-day Japan, analysts say.

More worrying, they point out, is that they seem to have been emboldened to make outrageous comments because the media and society no longer seem to hold them as accountable as they would have in years gone by.

Hirasawa told a meeting that he did not “understand” moves by a number of local governments to recognise same-sex marriages, adding: “Criticising LGBT people would create problems, but if everyone became like them then a nation would collapse.”

Hirasawa – who previously served as head of the LDP’s public relations operations – later tried to walk back the comments, saying they had been made in the context of Japan’s problem with an ageing population and the need to encourage young people to have more children.