The Government of Japan has again apologized on Monday for the «regrettable» and «scandalous» statements made by the Prime Minister’s former advisor, Fumio Kishida, who has been dismissed after criticizing same-sex marriages.
«Prime Minister Kishida aspires to an inclusive society,» Chief of Staff Hirokazu Matsuno told a parliamentary committee on Monday, who again apologized «to all those who felt hurt.»
Matsuno described those comments as «outrageous», «regrettable» and «totally incompatible» with the policies of a government that does not tolerate discrimination and prejudice based on sexual orientation and gender identity, reports Japanese television news channel NHK.
On Saturday, Masayoshi Arai, until then executive secretary to the prime minister, was removed from his post after stating to the press that he «would not want to live next door» to an LGTBI couple and would even «hate to see them.» In the face of the uproar caused, he tried to quickly retract his statement, but was eventually dismissed.
Japan is one of the world’s leading economies without a legislative text on marriage unions for same-sex couples. Kishida’s conservative Liberal Democratic Party government has already rejected calls to pass such a law ahead of this year’s G7 summit in the city of Hiroshima.
Although Arai’s statements were quickly censured by Kishida, they came in a context in which the Prime Minister alerted his party to the need to «exercise extreme caution» in discussions on this issue, knowing that a large part of his electorate is among the older sectors of the population and still reluctant to this type of social progress.
A survey conducted by the ‘Mainichi’ newspaper and Saitama University between November 2021 and January 2022 revealed that 71 percent of respondents aged between 18 and 29 believed that same-sex marriage should be legally recognized. The figure dropped to 25 percent of those aged 70 and over, reports Bloomberg.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
