Ayaka Shiomura, a 36-year-old member of the opposition Your Party, called for the Tokyo metropolitan government to support women who need assistance while pregnant or raising children during a June 18 assembly session. She also suggested that the government should help Japanese women who have fertility issues to conceive children.
Japan is wrestling with a declining birth rate and growing elderly population. It has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world.
While she was speaking, men in the section for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) began jeering at her with lines like: “Hey you, should hurry up and get married!” and “Can’t you have babies?”
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A online petition, which calls for punishment of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly members who hurled those sexist comments, gathered more than 32, 000 signatures throughout Japan in under 24 hours. The petition was posted on Change.org, a website which provides a platform for citizens to gather signatures and support for popular causes. The number of signatures is expected to exceed in 60,000 in the next day.
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Japan is very far behind the rest of the developed world in terms of gender equality. Japan was ranked 105th last year in the 2013 Global Gender Gap Report, which ranks women’s equality in 136 countries. Under the Shinzo Abe (LDP) administration, Japan’s ranking in press freedom has also fallen to new lows.
Shiomura is reportedly going to seek punishment for the person who yelled the comments at her. Judging by the huge numbers of people signing the petition and that her protest tweet has now been retweeted nearly 30,000 times—-she may have a lot of support.
I'm not that surprised. This is off topic, but if you watch Animes you probably have noticed that some Animes is pretty sexist when it comes to female characters. They are given huge breasts, and often they play passive roles in terms of character development. Anyways hope they get the person/people behind this, they need to work on gender equality
I saw this on the news earlier. The behavior of those jerks was truly despicable. If you watch the video that they have on CNN you can see this poor woman fighting back the tears.
I hope they find these men, shame them in the most public way, and force them to do some form of social work/penance.
Harem anime's are a mess but there are quite a few with strong females. Videogames on the otherhand.....
That comment was so damn disrespectful.
Yeah not saying they dont have animes that have strong female leads Animes in general though exploit female characters for their audience which is annoying. I enjoy watching animes I watched quit a few, but if female characters are clearly exploited its a bad turn off for me
A voice from the floor said "You are the one who should get married first," followed by laughter and more heckling, including "She must be single" and "Can't you even have babies?"
Suzuki apologized over the first remark, but denied making the others. He said he never meant to insult her but wishes she could marry soon.
"I really hoped she could marry soon, bearing in mind this ongoing trend where women are delaying marriage and having fewer children," he said. "But there are people who cannot do so even if they want to, and I realize what I said lacked consideration."
Suzuki said he personally apologized to Shiomura, a 35-year-old former TV personality, and her colleagues of opposition Your Party before the news conference. He left the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to take responsibility for causing the embarrassment to his fellow members, but vowed to keep his seat in the Tokyo assembly.
ya although i absolutely adore japan and i realize they are far more advanced then us in the west in a plethora of things..the gender equality issue is still very potent
No surprise. Japan is incredibly sexist and xenophobic country.
Extremely untrue.
I've been there and while I did get a few stares (like who wouldn't in a country were few black people visit) they are not xenophobic in the slightest.
I've been there and while I did get a few stares (like who wouldn't in a country were few black people visit) they are not xenophobic in the slightest.
Animes in general though exploit female characters for their audience which is annoying. I enjoy watching animes I watched quit a few, but if female characters are clearly exploited its a bad turn off for me