Kanji Kato criticised for telling women to have multiple children as birth rate falls to lowest level since 1899An MP from Japan’s governing party has drawn accusations of sexism after he said women should have multiple children and warned those who preferred to remain single that they would become a burden on the state later in life. Last year about 941,000 children were born in Japan, the lowest number since records began in 1899. Kato, 72, is not the first Japanese politician to suggest that women should regard producing offspring as their primary role in life. In 2007 the then health minister, Hakuo Yanagisawa, described women as “birth-giving machines” and said it was their public duty to increase the birthrate. His office later issued a statement in which he retracted the comments and said he had “not intended to disrespect women”.

Source: The Guardian May 11, 2018 04:41 UTC