アグネスの地球うおっちんぐ

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From the Asahi Weekly, February 25, 2007.

Copies will be distributed in class.

女性と若者が受難の時代:大臣失言の背景を探る

アグネスは柳沢厚労相が1月下旬に松江市での講演で「女性は生む機械」と発 言した問題に激しい憤りを感じました。海外の友人などの意見を紹介しながら、 発言の背景にある日本社会の構造問題を鋭い視点から分析しています。

I was talking to a European friend of mine, and the topic turned to the recent gaffe made by health minister Hakuo Yanagisawa about women being "birth-giving machines".

"I can't believe that the Japanese public allows him to keep his post. If the same thing happened in Europe, the outcry will be so big that he will not be allowed to work on the issue of low birthrate ever."

My friend was not only angry with Yanagisawa, but also with Japanese society, which lets him stay in power.

I am also very disappointed with his remarks. What is wrong with them? First of all, he is dehumanizing women. Treating a person as a "thing" is not only an infringement of human rights, but can be taken as abuse.

Yanagisawa apologized many times for his gaffe, and promised that he would not say anything to offend women again. However, several days later, he did it again. This time he said the dreams of young people of wanting to get married and to have two children are extremely "healthy and wholesome".

Once again, people were offended because the remark implies that peole who do not want to get married or have children are not healthy or wholesome. People may want to stay single, or have less than two children, but we must respect their choices.

I truly believe that Yanagisawa has never learned how to respect human lives. He treats babies as numbers, and taxpayers as entities who fill the country's coffers and cover social benefits costs. To make ends meet, he needs production numbers to grow. Yanagisawa actually aimed a remark at a female lawmaker when she grilled him on his gaffes during a diet session.

He called her a "liberated women" in a sarcastic tone. I was shocked. He was making fun of women who dared to challenge the status quo. I felt that we had returned to the 1960s when women fought for equal rights. We thought we had earned respect, but for Yanagisawa, women who are forward-thinking are a joke. His insensitivity to people's feelings is without bounds. He seems to be completely ignorant of what is appropriate and what is not. How can someone be so uneducated on human rights?

How can someone be so careless and discriminating? It is surprising that he is still in power, and the storm is dying down. This attitude is exactly why women are suspicious and turned off. If they feel their dignity and choices in life are being limited because of childbirth, it is not a wise move to become a mother.

Yanagisawa may thing that solving the nation's low fertility rate is an economic project, but actually it is a psychological, social and cultural project. If society cannot show women that they will be respected, women will be too scared to start a family -- let alone give birth to children.

Verbal abuse such as those made by Yanagisawa only confirms to women that they cannot believe in the system, and if they choose to become a mother, they will become more vulnerable. Not a lot of women will take the risk.

大臣に再教育が必要?

If attitudes like Yanagisawa's do not change, the fertility rate in Japan will not improve. Only when women know that there is support for child-rearing, genuine human love in society, and proof that their children or they will not be treated as a "thing", will they feel safe to become a mother. Child-rearing is a time-consuming, money-consuming and backbreaking affair.

But giving birth is also a miracle, and a blessing that can bring joy to the world. Hearing Yanagisawa speak makes one feel that giving birth is like making goods in a factory. It is an insult to human lives and mankind. Will Yanagisawa change his ways and amend his thinking?

I am not very hopeful. Yanagisawa may not be an evil person, but he really needs a crash course on human rights and gender studies. He simply is not someone that future mothers want to put their trust in. Will someone please tell him that he is living in the past, times have changed, and he must treat women as equals and stop putting people down? If there are Japanese men out there who agree with Yanagisawa, they also need rehabilitation to fit into this modern world. In a way, Yanagisawa shows us the core reasons for the low fertility rate in Japan: lack of consideration for the problems that women and young people are facing, while putting the blame on the victim.

If we can learn anything from this, it is to make sure that our husbands and sons do not become another person like him.

By Agnes Chan

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