Yoshitaka Sakurada, a Liberal Democratic Party Lower House member and former Olympics minister, appeared in front of Kashiwa Station in Chiba Prefecture on July 5 for another controversial remark by Yoshitaka Sakurada asking women not to be tolerant of men who want to get married to tackle the falling birthrate.
Sakurada, 72, is a Lower House member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
He said Japan s falling birthrate is a serious problem, in a stump speech in front of Kashiwa Station in Chiba Prefecture on July 5.
He said that there are increasing numbers of men and women who are unmarried.
Sakurada said men want to get married but more and more women think they don't have to get married. It is so sad. He said that he would be grateful if women would be more tolerant of men. That is a controversial remark, but that is what men think. On July 6th, Kenta Izumi, head of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, criticized Sakurada's remark, saying, Outdated thinking is rampant in the LDP. Similar remarks have been made repeatedly by LDP lawmakers, he told reporters in Osaka. They believe men should work from home and women should stay inside and women should obey men. Sakurada was under fire in May 2019 for making another remark about women at a party for an LDP Upper House member in Chiba Prefecture.
He said he would like to ask women to have at least three children, referring to the falling number of births in Japan.
He said that he made a comment because I thought it was important to create an environment where women can have children with their minds at ease and raise them. I did not intend to force women to do so or hurt anyone.