A leader of Japan’s ruling party has sparked an uproar by calling people without children selfish, in the latest in a series of comments by senior politicians urging women to have more babies.
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai on Tuesday said that recent generations think they are better off without children.
He contrasted them with older people who had large families despite the devastation of World War II and urged women to have babies to contribute to Japan’s prosperity.
The country is struggling with an aging and declining population.
“Before, during and after the war, nobody said it’s better not have children because it would be too much trouble. Today, people have a selfish idea that they are better off without having children,” Nikai said. “In order for everyone to pursue happiness, we should have [women] bear many children, so our country will prosper and develop.”
Opponents on Wednesday said that Nikai’s remark neglected people’s right to choose their family size and was insensitive to those who are forced to give up hopes of having children because of financial or medical difficulties.
They also criticized him for rejecting diversity, including same-sex couples and single parents.
Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan leader Yukio Edano told Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a parliamentary debate that the decision whether or not to have children “is part of the most basic right of self-determination, in which third parties should never interfere.”
Abe agreed, saying that the decisions to marry or have children should be up to each individual and that he and his wife, Akie, have no children.
“We should not impose our opinion on others,” he said.
Abe pledged to provide financial support for child rearing and education.
A total 946,060 babies were born in Japan last year, the lowest number since the nation began compiling statistics in 1899 and below 1 million for the second year in a row, government statistics showed.
Abe has promoted women’s advancement at work to address labor shortages caused by Japan’s aging and declining population, although rights activists say his measures are inadequate because they are not based on human rights.
Several senior lawmakers have been criticized for urging women to focus more on childrearing.
Last month, an Abe confidante, LDP lawmaker Koichi Hagiuda, angered some women and single-parent fathers by when he said that women should be primarily responsible for rearing children because “all babies prefer mommies [to daddies] — there is no mistake.”
Another LDP lawmaker, Kanji Kato, said every married couple should have at least three children.
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