Japan’s deputy PM Taro Aso sorry for saying women are ‘the problem’ when it comes to nation’s declining birth rate

Aso was speaking after data showed Japan’s population fell by a record 448,000 people in 2018

In 2007, the then health minister, Hakuo Yanagisawa, described women as ‘birth-giving machines’

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Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso. Photo: AFP

Published: 1:30pm, 5 Feb 2019Updated: 1:48pm, 5 Feb 2019

Japan’s gaffe-prone deputy prime minister, Taro Aso, has been forced to retract remarks that appeared to blame women who do not have children for problems associated with the country’s low birth rate and ageing population.

Aso, who doubles as finance minister, told a constituency meeting in Fukuoka, southwest Japan, at the weekend that older people were being unfairly singled out to explain the country’s demographic crisis.

“There are lots of weird people who say the elderly are at fault, but that’s incorrect,” Japanese media quoted him as saying. “Rather, those who aren’t giving birth to children are the problem.

“The ageing population, combined with the diminishing number of children, is the grave issue in the mid and long term.”

Taro Aso (centre) alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Photo: Kyodo

Aso later withdrew the remarks after opposition MPs accused him of insensitivity towards couples who want to have children but are unable to do so.

The 78-year-old claimed media had taken his words out of context and that he had simply attempted to highlight the threat the declining birth rate poses to Japan’s economic health. But he added: “I’d like to withdraw my comments and will be careful with my words in the days ahead.”