Fumio Kishida, the prime minister of Japan, fired one of his aides for making homophobic remarks that he deemed to be “outrageous.”
Masayoshi Arai’s comments that he “doesn’t even want to look at” married same-sex couples were “outrageous,” according to Kishida, and “incompatible” with the inclusive society the government seeks to create.
On Saturday, Kishida told reporters, “I decided to remove him from his post as secretary.
According to national broadcaster NHK, Arai, a trade and economy official who joined Kishida’s office as a secretary in October, stated on Friday that he “wouldn’t like it if they lived next door” and that people would “abandon the country” if we allowed same-sex marriage.
Later, the 55-year-old apologized, claiming that even though his comments were his personal view, they were inappropriate.
The resignation is a further setback for Kishida’s administration, which has seen its support ratings decline since last year.
In just three months, Kishida has lost four ministers, either due to claims of financial misdeeds or associations with the contentious Unification Church.
Mio Sugita, a vice minister for internal affairs and communications, was one of those who left after making divisive remarks about the LGBTQ+ community and the indigenous Ainu people of Japan. She left in December.
Despite recent media polls showing that most people accept such partnerships, Japan is the only country in the Group of Seven industrialized nations that does not recognize same-sex marriage.
Following Kishida’s remarks in parliament that same-sex marriage deserved cautious examination due to its potential impact on the family structure, Arai made his remarks.
In district courts all around Japan, more than a dozen couples have filed cases asserting that the Constitution is violated by the prohibition on same-sex unions.
A court in the capital of Japan upheld a prohibition on same-sex unions in November of last year, but said that same-sex families’ lack of legal protection violated their human rights.
