Japanese politician apologizes for proposing marriage ban for women older than 25

Naoki Hyakuta, the leader of Japan’s Conservative Party, stirred controversy on Friday by suggesting that women should be barred from marriage after age 25 and that they should undergo hysterectomy by 30.

In his now-deleted YouTube livestream, Hyakuta also proposed that women should not be permitted to attend university from age 18 so they can purportedly focus more on having children. The Japanese official made his proposals in response to Japan’s declining birth rate, which fell for the eighth consecutive year in 2023, down by 5.6% from the previous year.

Aichi Governor Hideaki Omura condemned Hyakuta’s comments, calling them “unspeakably hideous.” Sumie Kawakami, a lecturer at Yamanashi Gakuin University, also expressed shock, telling the South China Morning Post, “I cannot believe that a Japanese politician has said such a thing.”

The Conservative Party leader apologized on Sunday, noting his comment was only a hypothetical “science-fiction” aimed at highlighting birthrate issues. “I will retract them and apologize as there were people who found them unpleasant,” Hyakuta said, adding that his ideas are “something that should not happen.”