When a Gaffe is Not a Gaffe and Why It Matters
By now, anyone and everyone who is reading this article or who has had even tangential contact with the news in Japan over the last few weeks is undoubtedly quite familiar with the remarks of Minister of Health, Labor, and Welfare Yanagisawa Hakuo, calling women birthing machines.
From the blogosphere to the Japan Times to respected former Prime Minister Nakasone Yasuhiro, we’ve heard about the trouble Yanagisawa’s remark and its equally awkward follow-up - that healthy couples should want at least two children - have caused. When Yanagisawa irritatedly responded to DPJ Diet member Komiyama Youko’s questioning with “もういいんじゃない,” there were surely a few observers thinking the same thing: enough already.
The remarks were offensive, at least out of line for a Health Minister, and have rightly drawn great criticism. The remarks, though, especially the first one, are not the real issue and are not enough, in and of themselves, to warrant a long-serving, able Minister’s resignation. Frankly, his initial remark wasn’t that bad. He initial remarks were:
The number of women between the ages of 15 and 50 is fixed. The number of birth-giving machines (and) devices is fixed, so all we can ask is that they do their best per head.
He didn’t even directly say women were machines, he used an unfortunate metaphor and he immediately expressed second thoughts over word choice, saying that perhaps “machines” was not the best word to use. Minister Yanagisawa certainly did not, as the Times‘ Noriko Hama, a professor at prestigious Doshisha University, exaggerated, say that “[women’s] sole function is to breed,” or imply that any punishment would be visited upon women who didn’t have children. His initial remark was phrased, if anything, as an acknowledgement of reality, a request. To paraphrase with his intended meaning instead of sniping in mind, he said there are only so many women between 15 and 50 and all we can do to combat the problem of a falling birthrate is ask them to do their best.
His remarks were not a women’s issue any more than the birthrate is a women’s issue. Women bear the brunt of the childbearing weight. Until seahorse-human hybrids make up the bulk of the nation’s populace, it will remain thus.
Given the Times‘ recent ham-handed, irresponsible, Asahi wanna-be attempts at editorials, the overstatement in that one particular opinion piece is not all that surprising and the point of this piece is not to pick on the Professor Hama. Rather, it is to get past the headline-grabbing quotes and explain the deeper problem.
To start, previous Ministers who could be accused of doing more talking than thinking, such as Defense Minister Kyuma Fumio, MEXT Minister Ibuki Bunmei, or Foreign Minister Aso Taro, can be dismissed, if one wishes, as fools. This is not the case with Mr. Yanagisawa.
As Financial Reconstruction Minister under Prime Minister Obuchi Keizo, in the depths of Japan’s economic doldrums in the late ’90s, Yanagisawa made some tough decisions and took tough stands that needed to be taken. He took on the banks, whose power was not to be trifled with, and made powerful enemies within the established power structure even as he made friends among those who wanted to see business in Japan move away from the sclerotic post-War model. An argument could be made that that doesn’t make him a genius, that he only did what many observers had been saying for years needed to be done, but it certainly means that, at at least one point in his career, he was not a yes-man simply waiting for his turn in power under the seniority and loyalty-rewarding faction system. And he survived it, successful, at least in part, in his reforms as well as in his career. This means the man’s no fool.
On the one hand, this is reassuring. Political incorrectness aside, Yanagisawa is in the lonely position of sitting in the Abe Cabinet with actual accomplishments under his belt - and important ones at that. This distances him from the string of Ministers before him who have misspoken so often that the Prime Minister has had to ask them to keep their mouths shut and that the press and blogosphere have repeated variations on the “foot-in-mouth disease” cliche so often that this cranky observer, for one, would like to see a moratorium on its use.
On the other hand, this makes Yanagisawa’s troubles all the more disturbing. Because he’s not a fool, because he didn’t just slip up. Because his remarks are a symptom of deeper problems not only with him, but within the Cabinet as a whole.
First we had Ibuki Bunmei telling suicidal bullied kids not to write him on the grounds that it would confuse their parents. Then we had Aso Taro, arguably the master of the unfortunate public statement, doing what he does best, most recently using the word “immature” to describe the US invasion of Iraq. True, perhaps, but a stupid thing for a Japanese Foreign Minister to say. Then we had Defense Minister Kyuma Fumio, taking a shot at the title with his claims that Japan hadn’t supported the US invasion of Iraq and that the US had invaded on the assumption that Iraq had nuclear weapons, among other erroneous statements. Kyuma has proved to be such a boob that this observer was put in the unusual position of agreeing with Dick Cheney when he refused to add Kyuma to his meeting schedule for his trip to Japan next week.
And then we had Yanagisawa’s unfortunate metaphor.
In my more cynical moments, I think his comment stirred up a shitstorm to do a pig farm shame largely because it was sexist and insensitive, instead of being merely factually incorrect or plain idiotic. It and, as a result, Yanagisawa were easy to attack. One need not be up on politics or world affairs or even think too hard to realize his comments were inappropriate. And what is editorializing if not looking for something to attack?
(This is not a bad thing. Rather, it acts a check on those in power by ensuring that their every mistake or misdeed will be widely reported.)
I am not defending Yanagisawa, though. He was wrong. His reaction and his misguided attempts to cover his own tail have only made things worse. In fact, it was these further mistakes that made what is going wrong in the kantei crystal clear.
By far the best analysis of what is going wrong has been former Prime Minister Nakasone’s piece “Shinzo Abe at a Crossroads,” in which someone who really ought to know better than anyone, criticizes Abe for, among other things, appointing Cabinet Ministers on the basis of seniority or loyalty, based on political deals, rather than on competence or political skill.
Nakasone is, if I may be so presumptuous, absolutely correct. When Yanagisawa followed his “birthing machines” comment with the statement that healthy couples should want at least two children, all doubts were put to rest.
He uttered no gaffe. Nor did Aso, Ibuki, or Kyuma. A gaffe is a mistake. They didn’t momentarily allow deep, hidden feelings to show through, either. The trouble is that Yanagisawa, possibly because of all the flak he’s taken, is the only on who sees that he’s done anything wrong.
What we have is a Cabinet without a clue. In some cases, they are simply incompetent, unqualified to hold the portfolios they do. In other cases, they’re woefully out of touch as well. The problem is that Japan is being run by a gaggle of good old boys who are making a hash of things and don’t even realize they’re doing it. What we have is a bunch of political hacks who see just criticism of them as the problem. To make things worse, they were chosen by a Prime Minister who is doing his damnedest to return to the days when this was the norm.
There have been a number of calls for Yanagisawa’s resignation. It would be shame if the man who had been one of the few hopes for this administration had to leave for such a stupid mistake, but he should leave. He needn’t feel lonely, though. If the people of Japan really want a better government, they should demand that he not resign alone.
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