Japanese health minister learns that words can hurt.
I don't think that Japan's health minister really meant to call women "birth-giving machines" in his recent speech on the falling birthrate. It's clear that something got lost in translation. I think that what Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa meant to say was that women are "baby-making machines." Big difference!
But fortunately, the Japanese understood him perfectly. The public has been outraged by Yanagisawa's comments, and Reuters reported earlier this week that high-profile figures from rival parties are demanding for his resignation. "This remark, not just as a politician but as a human being, ignored women's human rights,'' Naoto Kan, a lawmaker with the main opposition Democratic Party, told a television reporter.
Japan is not wrong in panicking about its plummeting birth rate, and trying to find viable solutions (one proposal called for increasing child care and promoting greater gender equality, among other progressive ideas). However, it sounds like some in the current administration are simply passing the burden of responsibility to individual Japanese women, as if it's their job alone to have kids. Some advice to Yanagisawa: referring to women "birth-giving machines" probably isn't the best way to get them in the mood.