A ruling Japanese lawmaker was forced to apologize yesterday after sparking outrage by saying perpetrators of gang rape were "vigorous" and "close to normal."
Seiichi Ota, a Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmaker and former Cabinet minister, made the remarks during a debate among politicians on Japan's declining birth rate on Thursday.
"Gang rape shows the people who do it are still vigorous, and that is OK. I think that might make them close to normal," domestic media quoted Ota as saying in reference to the recent arrest of five university students for alleged gang rape.
Ota quickly came under fire from opposition and ruling party members alike, although experts said his comments reflected a propensity in Japan to treat rapists leniently.
A group representing all female lawmakers of opposition parties demanded in a letter to Ota that he formally apologize to all women, although they stopped short of demanding he resign.
"It must be said that this shows disdain for and is an insult to victimized women and to all women, and cannot possibly be forgiven," the lawmakers said in the letter given to an aide of Ota.
"The comments by Seiichi Ota ... are truly awful, showing too much ignorance of suffering from sexual violence and too much insensibility," Mizuho Fukushima, secretary general of the opposition Social Democratic Party and member of the group, told reporters.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi joined the criticism.
"It is natural that he be criticized. Rape is an unforgiveable, contemptible act. It's different from whether one is vigorous or not," Koizumi told reporters.
The incident came just days after a senior official of Japan's Communist Party resigned after admitting to sexually harassing a woman.
Ota was reprimanded by LDP secretary-general Taku Yamasaki and apologized for his remarks.
"I think the fact that such comments were reported made victims ... and many women feel unpleasant, so I want to reconsider and express my apologies," he said.
Ota said he thought rape was a serious crime and wanted to make efforts so it would be punished more strictly.
Two years in prison is the minimum sentence for rape in Japan and 15 years the maximum, but it is rare for a sentence to be over five years.
Yasuyuki Takai, vice chairman of the Japan Federation of Bar Association's committee on victim support, said he thought Ota's comments showed that Japanese society was too accepting of rape.
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
With a monthly pension barely sufficient to buy 15 eggs or a small bag of rice, Cuba’s elderly people struggle to make ends meet in one of Latin America’s poorest and fastest-aging countries. As the communist island battles its deepest economic crisis in three decades, the state is finding it increasingly hard to care for about 2.4 million inhabitants — more than one-quarter of the population — aged 60 and older. Sixty is the age at which women — for men it is 65 — qualify for the state pension, which starts at 1,528 pesos per month. That is less than US$13