Japanese actor faces online backlash for telling anxious pregnant fan to ‘beg’ husband for pain-free epidural
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Japanese actor Toma Ikuta has sparked online outrage after telling a heavily pregnant woman to beg her husband for a painless epidural during childbirth.
On May 5, Ikuta, 39, posted the comment on his Instagram account, responding to a fan who was nine months pregnant and who confided that the thought of labour scared her.
The actor is famous in Japan with 1.4 million followers on Instagram. He was one of the top stars of the Smile-Up talent agency, formerly known as Johnny & Associates, before he left the agency last year.
He was known for his appearances in hit Japanese television dramas For You in Full Blossom (2007) and My Story is Long (2019).
His response triggered a backlash among online observers in Japan, who slammed him as a “male chauvinist” and a “bossy husband”.
“I am speechless. Why does a woman need to ‘beg’ her husband for an epidural? The husband is not the one who is going through all the pain to give birth,” one Japanese woman said on X social media platform.