support@headlinenews360.com
Last Updated:
Hyakuta suggested that women over 25 should be prohibited from marrying and barred from attending university after the age of 18 to fulfil their roles as good mothers.
Hyakuta apologised for his statement following backlash. (Photo Credits: X)
Japan’s Conservative Party leader Naoki Hyakuta has come under fire for his controversial suggestions for improving the country’s low birth rate. Hyakuta, in a YouTube discussion on measures to increase the country’s birthrate amid the ageing population, suggested forced hysterectomies (removal of the uterus) at 30. He said this would force women to have children early and reverse Japan’s declining birthrate.
Hyakuta further suggested that women over 25 should be prohibited from marrying and barred from attending university after the age of 18 to fulfil their roles as good mothers.
Hyakuta’s words were heavily criticised by women and supporters of women’s rights, calling him misogynistic and extreme. Following the backlash, Hyakuta apologised in a post on X, saying that what he had said was “extremely harsh” and “something that should not happen.”
In a speech in Nagoya on Sunday, Hyakuta retracted his statement and sought an apology.
“I will retract them and apologise as there were people who found them unpleasant,” he said, according to The Independent.
Japan has been battling a low birth rate and the problem of an ageing population over the past few decades. According to governmental statistics, the number of births reached in the first six months of 2024 was 3,50,074, a decline of 5.7% compared to the same period of 2023.
Japan’s Birth Rate Crisis
Japan is currently facing a demographic problem of an ageing population and low birth rate. The country’s total fertility rate has been below the substitution level for the past few decades.
Japan’s population has been in steady decline since its economic boom in the 1980s. The country has a fertility rate of 1.3, far below the replacement rate of 2.1 required to maintain a stable population.
Further, the country’s life expectancy is among the highest in the world, nearly one in every 1,500 people were age 100 or older. However, its birth rate is among the lowest globally.
