Outrage over Tokyo governor's tirade on women

The controversial Tokyo governor, Shintaro Ishihara, is unlikely, however, to be troubled by the anger that he has aroused. The outspoken nationalist routinely blames crime in the capital on "foreigners", warning that Chinese and Korean immigrants will riot and loot homes and shops in the event of an earthquake.

Mr Ishihara, 69, made his latest pronouncement in an interview with the women’s magazine Shukan Josei in November last year.

Nearly 12 months later, a group of angry women, headed by a lawyer, Mami Nakano, and Yasuko Yunoki, a trades union representative, have organised a petition demanding a retraction and an apology - and are considering a lawsuit.

It has taken them a year to verify that the comment was actually Mr Ishihara’s - and not, as he had suggested, sourced to a professor at Tokyo University.

"Once discrimination against gender is allowed, there are many cases of discrimination: there is a risk of fascism," Ms Nakano said. "It is not an issue about women, but a human rights issue.

"Even Hitler did not make that sort of remark," she added.

The offending quote went as follows: "This is what Takafumi Matsui [a Tokyo University professor] has said, not me - but according to him, it is pointless and wicked that menopausal women alive any longer.

"He said that while men remain able to procreate even at 80 or 90, women lose the ability to give birth once they become menopausal," Mr Ishihara told the magazine.

"It is evil for the globe that such women continue to live until the ages of Kin-san and Gin-san," he added. Kin-san and Gin-san were centenarian twins who became celebrities.

"I was persuaded by [Prof Matsui’s] view, but I cannot express such thoughts as a politician," Mr Ishihara added.

On 12 December last year, Mr Ishihara fanned the fire by declaring in the Tokyo metropolitan assembly that he totally agreed with other comments by Prof Matsui, comparing women with animals, and said that elderly women were nothing but an oppressive burden.

Prof Matsui, however, has denied making the remarks. He is backed up by Ms Nakano. "According to our checks, Matsui did not make these remarks," she said. "These remarks expressed Mr Ishihara’s own thoughts."

Some 447 women have signed an open letter to Mr Ishihara and Ms Nakano and Ms Yunokiare seeking 1 million signatures on a petition demanding that he apologise.

"The essence of his remarks is violence against women," Ms Nakanao said, adding that, as Tokyo governor, Mr Ishihara was supposed to uphold laws promoting equality and preventing domestic violence.

Despite proclamations that would alarm most people, Mr Ishihara is reportedly toying with the idea of challenging Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. The Tokyo governor was a member of Mr Koizumi’s Liberal Democratic Party until five years ago, when he resigned from parliament to stand as an independent in Tokyo’s gubernatorial elections.

Winning by a landslide, Mr Ishihara’s popularity has remained high, in spite of his racist and sexist comments and his knack for angering the governments of China and South Korea by saying that Japan should stop apologising for the Second World War, and re-arm.

Mr Ishihara has refused to announce his candidacy for re-election as governor, feeding speculation that he feels he has sufficient support to win Mr Koizumi’s job. The prime minister is under fire for failing to get Japan’s economy back on track after a 12-year recession. Mr Ishihara has done nothing to play down the story.

Japanese politicians have something of a history of trampling on the sensitivities of entire sections of society. An economics minister, Taro Aso, declared in 2000 that "the best country in the world would be a country where the richest Jewish people would want to live," while Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone claimed in 1986 that Americans were less intelligent than Japanese "because of a considerable number of blacks, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans".