Facing criticism: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (R) and Foreign Minister Taro Aso listen to questions of main opposition party leader Ichiro Ozawa at the plenary session of Japan's national Diet in Tokyo yesterday. Abe said he had issued a warning to his health minister for degrading women as "child-bearing machines", as approval for his government continued to slide. Picture: AFP
Monday, January 29, 2007
FIRST, his defence minister risks offending Japan's key ally, the United States, by calling the start of the Iraq war a "mistake". Then, his health minister sparks a domestic fuss by calling women "birth-giving machines".
Gaffes by cabinet ministers are giving Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a political headache when his support ratings are already slipping due to doubts about his leadership ability — hardly cheering ahead of an upper house election in July.
"I want to make clear that our cabinet is not allowing people to just say what they want," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told a news conference yesterday at which he was bombarded with questions about the comments by the two ministers.
Abe came under fire when he took office in September for creating a "crony cabinet" of lawmakers who had supported his bid to become prime minister. Now, some critics say his choices are coming back to haunt him.
"These people are not media savvy. They are feudal warlords who voice their frank opinions," said Jesper Koll, chief economist at Merrill Lynch in Tokyo. "He put them in the cabinet ... and now he's stuck with them."
Abe told parliament he had given a strong warning to Health Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa about his "inappropriate" phrase, and Yanagisawa himself apologised for "hurting women's feelings ".
Yanagisawa, 71, had been speaking to local lawmakers about Japan's rock-bottom birth rate, which has raised concerns about economic growth and the ability to fund ballooning pension costs.
"Because the number of birth-giving machines and devices is fixed, all we can ask for is for them to do their best per head, although it may not be so appropriate to call them machines," Kyodo quoted Yanagisawa as saying. Shiozaki was also grilled about the latest controversial remarks by Defence Minister Fumio Kyuma, who last week said US President George W Bush had been wrong to start the Iraq war on the assumption that Baghdad had nuclear weapons. Reuters
Gaffes by cabinet ministers are giving Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a political headache when his support ratings are already slipping due to doubts about his leadership ability — hardly cheering ahead of an upper house election in July.
"I want to make clear that our cabinet is not allowing people to just say what they want," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told a news conference yesterday at which he was bombarded with questions about the comments by the two ministers.
Abe came under fire when he took office in September for creating a "crony cabinet" of lawmakers who had supported his bid to become prime minister. Now, some critics say his choices are coming back to haunt him.
"These people are not media savvy. They are feudal warlords who voice their frank opinions," said Jesper Koll, chief economist at Merrill Lynch in Tokyo. "He put them in the cabinet ... and now he's stuck with them."
Abe told parliament he had given a strong warning to Health Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa about his "inappropriate" phrase, and Yanagisawa himself apologised for "hurting women's feelings ".
Yanagisawa, 71, had been speaking to local lawmakers about Japan's rock-bottom birth rate, which has raised concerns about economic growth and the ability to fund ballooning pension costs.
"Because the number of birth-giving machines and devices is fixed, all we can ask for is for them to do their best per head, although it may not be so appropriate to call them machines," Kyodo quoted Yanagisawa as saying. Shiozaki was also grilled about the latest controversial remarks by Defence Minister Fumio Kyuma, who last week said US President George W Bush had been wrong to start the Iraq war on the assumption that Baghdad had nuclear weapons. Reuters
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