Abe Says Having Children Should Be Choice

June 28, 2018

Tokyo- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Wednesday that whether to have children or not should be a choice left to each individual.

The remarks were made a day after Toshihiro Nikai, secretary-general of Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, described people who choose not to have children as "selfish."

"My wife and I have no children, unfortunately," Abe said in parliament in response to a question by Yukio Edano, leader of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.

Edano cited his own experience, saying that he and his wife were able to have children only after 10 years of fertility treatment.

"Nikai's comments can't be condoned," Edano said, urging Abe, who is also LDP leader, to reprimand the LDP executive.

On Tuesday, Nikai said, "Recently, there have been selfish people who believe that without children they can lead happier lives."

"We should all do our best to have many children to make everyone happy and our country prosperous," Nikai insisted.

CDPJ executive Kiyomi Tsujimoto told reporters Wednesday that she wonders if Nikai is still following the wartime slogan, "give birth and multiply."

Yasue Funayama of the Democratic Party for the People, another opposition party, told a press conference that some people cannot have children even if they want to. Nikai's remarks were "extremely inappropriate," she said.

LDP policy chief Fumio Kishida told a press conference that happiness depends on the individual. Noritoshi Ishida, policy head of the LDP's coalition ally, Komeito, said that Nikai's remarks were too strong. Jiji Press