Japanese Health Minister - hold the phone, it’s happened again!!!
Well, things in Japan are surprisingly still pretty heated following Health Minister, and today news has come out that he saying that it is natural for couples to want 2 children in Japan. Although Prime Minister Shinzo Abe rebuked his Health Minister for making the “birth-giving machines” comment mentioned in last week’s article, he resisted calls to fire Hakuo Yanagisawa or ask for his resignation, stating that he knew Yanagisawa’s future actions would make him regain the trust of the Japanese people. Even people within his leading LDP party were calling for his resignation, but he refused. So obviously, the thing for him to do would be to lie low for a while, and make sure he doesn’t say anything that could be misinterpreted, right? Wrong!!!
In a recent press conference, Yanigasawa apologised once again for his 
previous comments, but then went back to talking about the declining birth-rate in Japan. And then the soundbyte people had been waiting for came. “”We have to come up with policies that fall in line with a healthy desire among (young) couples to have at least two children…”. This comment raises another couple of issues. Firstly, does happiness depend on the number of children someone has? I am young and healthy but don’t particularly want children at the moment - does that mean I’m not happy? And secondly does this mean he doesn’t want older couples, couples with sickness or disabilities etc having children? He may not be stating these things but in light of recent events he is really holding himself up for ransom.
Expect the calls for his resignation to be ringing through the Diet (Japanese parliament) over the next week or so. Stay tuned for more comments from Japan’s answer to the Duke of Edinburgh!!!
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