Photo: Hyakuta Naoki’s X Capture, ‘Hyakuta Naoki, the head of the Japanese Conservative Party, is facing controversy for remarks about low birth rates, including saying “I’ll remove the uterus at the age of 30.”‘
According to local media reports such as Yomiuri Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun, Hyakuta made these remarks on November 8th while discussing the issue of low birth rates on his YouTube channel “News Morning 8 o’clock.”
During the YouTube live broadcast, Hyakuta and the party’s secretary-general, Kaori Arimoto, exchanged ideas on how to solve the low birth rate issue. Arimoto pointed out that “values are changing rapidly” and noted that people no longer consider having children synonymous with happiness. She asked Hyakuta for his thoughts on restoring these societal values.
In response, Hyakuta stated, “To overturn this, we have to change the social structure.” He mentioned, “Think of it as a novelist’s science fiction (SF).” He suggested radical measures, such as not sending women to college beyond the age of 18 or creating laws stating that women over 25 who are single can never marry, to create urgency among women.
His claim was that making women aware of a “time limit” for childbirth would prompt them to decide to have children. He then made the controversial statement about “removing the uterus” for women over 30.
When Arimoto halted the conversation, Hyakuta explained, “I was merely illustrating the time limit on childbirth in an easy-to-understand way.”
As criticism mounted, Hyakuta posted on X (formerly Twitter) the previous day, expressing, “This was a hypothetical example from SF novels. It cannot happen in reality,” while acknowledging, “I cannot deny the expressions were rough. I apologize to those who found it offensive.”
When asked for the party’s stance by Asahi Shimbun, Secretary-General Arimoto replied, “I don’t think the party needs to comment on metaphors.”
Meanwhile, the Japanese Conservative Party saw three candidates elected in the House of Representatives election held on the 27th.