Women “would have their uteruses removed when they turn over 30,” Naoki Hyakuta, leader of the Conservative Party of Japan, said in a stream on his YouTube channel on Friday.

On the channel, he also said that he would make it law for “women who are single after 25 years old not to be allowed to marry.”

(…)

Later, Hyakuta posted an apology on his X account. “I cannot deny that the expressions were too harsh,” he said. “I apologize for those who were offended.”

    • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      I’ve been saying it since 2015, but it bears repeating!

      The global conservative propaganda machine — lead by the US and Russia — is using all of the data obtained from surveillance capitalism to target, A/B test, and iterate on psychological warfare across social media in real-time (as close to as the platforms allow). The most criminally corrupt and sociopathic benefit the most, as there is no limit to how depraved they will go — bots, lies, disinformation, deep fakes, utilizing actual criminal enterprises and scam operations, illegally obtained data — they will do whatever it takes to succeed.

      There really isn’t much difference between persuading you to buy a product and persuading you to vote for a political party; they both attack similar weaknesses and vulnerabilities, and the process of building the data pipelines and statistical models is nearly identical. People who knew history were always saying that this is what surveillance capitalism would lead to eventually. I don’t think any of us thought it would happen so quickly, but the lack of regulation and highly centralized nature of social media meant that a relatively small operation could access 90% of the Internet using population.

      • AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space
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        Persuading you to vote for their guy, or if you’re disinclined to do so, persuading you to not vote by instilling disgust/outrage (see also: “Genocide Joe”) or just a blackpilled sense of powerlessness.

    • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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      Unchecked access to the internet by people who aren’t emotionally mature enough to handle it.

      Allowing all of humanity onto the internet when 30% of people still believe chocolate milk comes from brown cows was a mistake.

      • qyron@sopuli.xyz
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        Allowing all of humanity onto the internet when 30% of people still believe chocolate milk comes from brown cows was a mistake.

        You are referrering to children. Right? And I’ve lived a considerable amount of my life taking this as an urban legend. Not a fact.

        • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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          My apologies. I totally flipped some numbers. It’s actually 7% of people (not children) surveyed believe that chocolate milk is from brown cows.

          Now the survey wasn’t too robust with 5000 total respondents but it’s still embarrassing that that number isn’t like “Seven American adults in total believe chocolate milk is from brown cows”

          Here’s a CNN fluff piece on it https://edition.cnn.com/2017/06/16/us/chocolate-milk-help-trnd/index.html

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            No need to apologize. At best, I have to do it, because you managed to make me laugh while at the same time lose a little bit of hope for humanity.

            How can someone be that uninformed?!

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          Here’s a real number. 56% of Americans read at or below a sixth grade reading level.

          When complex topics like the economy are discussed, _at least _ 56% can’t comprehend the concepts because they lack the vocabulary. They do not understand how government works, or their own bodies, or diplomacy, or historical contexts. They are not capable of being part of many important national conversations.

          Now couple this with the fact that Democrats are terrible at messaging and simplifying complex policy into digestible sound bites while Republicans have perfected it, and you can easily see how we get to where we are now.

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            My sincere apologies upfront for my next sentence: I do not fathom what 6th grade reading level entails. Not in the USofA nor in my little barbarian european country.

            What I am aware is that children’s books and how they are taught to read is a diservice for them, with an overwhelming(ab)use of unnecessary images and infantilizing story telling.

            This isn’t an argument to have children read “War and Peace” as a bed time story but kids could dispense with all the garbage being thrown at them (including school text books) and most parents happily buy them and instead having something that actually challenges intelectually.

            And using a dictionary doesn’t hurt, unless you drop it on your toes.

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              In America they seem to prefer banning books that might cause some sort of empathy or critical thought.

      • postmateDumbass@lemmy.world
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        To be fair, chocolate milk comes from milk.

        Milk comes from cows.

        Most cows are at least partially brown, many 50% or more brown.

        Conversly, albino cows constitute a small portion of the milk supply.

        So it is, arguably, a correct statement.

      • 418_im_a_teapot@lemmy.world
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        And many of us men are just as baffled by it. I honestly don’t understand why there are so many men – who I’m sure shutter at any mention of a woman’s period – that feel the need to control every aspect of reproduction and do so in the most cruel ways.

        But also, the women who voted in support of those men are exponentially more baffling to me.

        My brain hurts trying to understand it.

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          Imagine being told every minute of every day that you don’t matter. That as a woman, your only purpose is to glorify men, support men, breed more men. That it’s the greatest and highest calling of women to surrender your life and your choices to men.

          That women are stupid and sinners because of Eve’s actions, and will be forever. So you can never be allowed any kind of authority, because like Eve you’ll just do something foolish or abuse it.

          Now imagine everyone and everything around you shows and supports this worldview. All the time.

          That’s where it comes from. When something is all you’ve ever known, then it’s normal. And, even if you consciously don’t believe it, it still worms its way inside of you.

    • foggy@lemmy.world
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      Russian state media just showed nudes of Trump’s wife during prime time tv.

      We’re in a weird spot.

    • scarabic@lemmy.world
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      WTF is even happening in this article? An official / novelist says “women would have their uteruses removed” and there is no additional context? Is he describing a fictional future? What? Why is this presented as some kind of news? What’s this “would” phrasing? Would under what conditions?

      Before we panic about the world let’s get some basic context to this drivel. How does sterilizing women over 30 address population decline, even in the most bizarre fictional speculations?

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        I think that the idea is that by setting a strict deadline after which women can’t have children or marry, they are forced to start a family now or risk regretting it later. That’s the only way I can make sense of this bizarre scenario.

        • scarabic@lemmy.world
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          I guess maybe… It’s a ridiculously terrible notion no matter what your priorities are.

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    What the fuck is even going on here, this doesn’t even align with their own weird agenda? This just seems psychotic for it’s own sake.

    • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world
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      Shock and Awe. He will say some heinous shit in a few days that’s slightly less evil and that will sound reasonable to the rightoids

      Basically how Trump speech got normalized in the west.

      • naeap@sopuli.xyz
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        Or let her die on the way
        Because a not child bearing mother is worthless anyway it seems

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    Just in case anyone is wondering, this is a fringe right-wing party with one seat in Japanese Parliament’s lower house.

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      This is how it started in most EU countries: one MP who is an idiot, but gains in representation every election by also taking advantage of the contradictions of governing. These idiots did not use to grow, but now they do…and they are networked too now.

      • devfuuu@lemmy.world
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        From one seat in my country to almost having a full right wing government in the last elections. Yeah, it’s not gonna end well for nobody if this shit keeps going up everywhere.

    • k0mprssd@lemmy.zip
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      good point, but I worry about a loop of the media giving attention, making people more aware that this party exists, ignorant people give them more support, repeat. seems like a similar strategy happened in the us with our media giving trump endless headlines.

    • kent_eh
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      this is a fringe right-wing party with one seat in Japanese Parliament’s lower house.

      One seat too many, if this is the attitude of their leader.

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    Smart move for a country with a birth rate going off the cliffs and a terminal case of xenophobism.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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      My assumption is this is to increase the birth rate. The birth rate over 30 is probably lower, and putting a deadline forces you into a FOMO situation. You fear the consequences, so you just get married and have children.

      Obviously, this is horrible for human rights (if you consider the rights of women to be human rights, which I at least do). I’m just saying it may be better for births than it appears. It’s like video games restricting sale of items can increase sales of them. The human brain is easily manipulated by FOMO, especially with something this severe I’d imagine.

      • EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com
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        The birth rate over 30 is probably lower, and putting a deadline forces you into a FOMO situation.

        I’ve a heard a similar theory explaining why some (U.S.) Republicans want to ban fertility treatments: FOMO to have kids younger because you might not be able to later.

        I personally think this will not work out the way they plan it to, bu there is a twisted train of thought behind it.

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    “I apologize for those who were offended.”

    ‘I’m sorry you’re offended by my abhorrent opinions’

    Notice he’s not actually apologizing. At all. He’s just sorry he’s catching flak about it

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      Is this true, have you read it in the original japanese? Because this nuance can get lost in translation.

      • Shortstack@reddthat.com
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        That’s true, possibly. I’d hope that whoever translated it would phrase it to preserve the original intent but that’s assuming it was actually a person doing it. Wild times we live in

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    Right, so to fight the declining birthrate, they entertain the idea that women over 25 should not be allowed to marry. And on top of that, women over the ripe, old age of 30 get their uteruses removed.

    I am sure this totally would serve as an incentive to breed more and not at all make existing problems worse.

    What a baka.

    • Laser@feddit.org
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      Right? It doesn’t even make sense for their own world view. I kind of suspect a translation mistake, but then again there seems to be no limit to conservative idiocy.

      The only way it makes sense is to create an environment where women out of FOMO Mary and give birth early.

      Also imagine asking the same thing for men lol these people would lose their mind. But that’s just the usual hypocrisy

      • Im_old@lemmy.world
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        They reason (and I want to stress that it’s their ideology, not mine) that men can keep doing crotchspawn when they are old. So the obvious solution is to force girls to marry and get breeded by men off all ages. /s but unfortunately not so much

        • Laser@feddit.org
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          men can keep doing crotchspawn when they are old.

          But if women can’t, why would there be need for sterilization?

          I know you’re probably right, just trying to point out the absurdity.

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            Risk of developmental difficulties increases with mother’s age.

            Father’s age too, but I think that’s a lesser impact.

            Also, having a threat towards women (but not men!) is just part of the selling point.

            I’m not at all saying that these are good arguments, but they might be the motivating factor. Personally, I think it’s mostly about the threat to women.

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    Because reading those sentences severely reduced my intelect, can please someone explain the brain dead logic of that loon? in very simple terms

    What is to gain from sterilizing women? In a severely aged country with low birth rates, as it is?

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      Its a threat to woman that if they don’t get married young and have babies, the government will hurt them.

      That it. Do what we say or else. The standard conservative line with women.

      With trumps win, expect more of this. Being a complete piece of shit clearly works, so this will only escalate. Getting attention, even by being a vile misogynist, is a winning move now.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        Pfft, he’s doing an amateur job of intimidating, then. It should have been thumbscrews or something. This way seems self defeating.

        • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
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          Nah, it clearly appeals to a subset of voters in some democracies, and those voters apparently turn out.

          • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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            True, your policies don’t have to make sense if you win.

            That being said, this guy runs a fringe party. They have a whole 3 seats in the Diet’s lower house and none whatsoever in the upper.

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      This seems to be about oppressing women while uplifting the creepiest sort of men.

      To give the maximum benefit of the doubt (which frankly, I don’t think they deserve), there’s evidence to suggest that birth defects become more likely as the mother gets older. I’ve always understood that to happen in women of a more advanced age though, 30 is too young to be a cutoff.

      Also, women can’t marry older than 25? What kind of bass ackwards handmaid’s tale bullshit is that? If you want to have a family I guess you’ve got to hitch your wagon to any horse you can get your hands on. They’re so fortunate though that the law doesn’t apply to men, so they’ll have plenty of creepy fifty year old dudes to choose from.

      I think as a rule we should start sterilizing politicians who endorse sterilization. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, right? Of course, a hysterectomy is quite an invasive procedure compared to a vasectomy, so maybe in the interest of equitability we should begin with castration.

      Anyway, this kind of rhetoric isn’t really for women - they just happen to be the ones affected by it. For the men that this appeals to, they’re probably believe they’re more likely to attract a virginal beauty if they start removing women’s options. It’s truly abhorrent.

      • qyron@sopuli.xyz
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        Sterilization for those who support it seems a fair proposal. Set an example.

      • VerdantSporeSeasoning
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        women can’t marry older than 25? What kind of bass ackwards handmaid’s tale bullshit is that?

        Japanese instructors in college would tell us how older unmarried women would be referred to as ‘Christmas Cakes’–no one wanted one after the 25th. Although they were happy that had been a changing attitude.

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          The Japanese Conservative Party has almost no power. They are considered extremists. They really are just a bunch of loony toons that get almost no press coverage outside of bullshit like this.

          The ruling Liberal Party is the non-extremist conservative party. (The irony is not lost on me.)

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    Is it Japan’s turn to have a go at surfing the wave of stupid?

  • VerticaGG@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    Passing this on:

    A uterus is NOT disposable even when you don’t want to have kids - it serves a purpose in women’s bodily health. If you need to get it removed for health reasons then absolutely do it, but please don’t ever think uterus + breasts serve no purpose when you’re not having kids. They greatly participate in the hormonal health of the body & brain, in the lymphatic structure, keeping other organs in their place, and it has been now proven by studies that if you do a hysterectomy when young it greatly affects your risk to get alzheimer’s/dementia. This is not to say you shouldn’t take care of your reproduction or get yourself sterilized if you want. But patriarchy has already commodified every body part of ours; please, let’s appreciate our natural bodies and health and not take it for granted. Please do not think your bodyparts are disposable if you are not having kids. That’s what men think. Your body parts are valuable and an important part of YOU. They serve YOU and your health, no-one else. You are not a barbie doll that can have parts taken out without consequences. You do not consist of parts, you are a whole person. You are a lovely, important human, and your health and body parts belong to you. I know we are taught to think about ourselves as a collection of body parts and to nit pick them apart, but I want to stress this is a patriarchal way of thinking. Your womb does not suddenly become irrelevant if you’re not in relationships with men. It is still hugely important to YOU.💜

    So yeah, as usual, why in the world should anyone except the person with the uterus, getting a say in the matter?

      • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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        Not since last year, when it was raised to 16.

        Even then that was the national minimum set over a hundred years ago.

        In practice it’s 18 in most prefectures, and has been for years, due to local law setting it to something sane.

      • qyron@sopuli.xyz
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        I would very much enjoy having the reasoning behind that low bar explained to me.

        • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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          There isn’t one. They are repeating a technically kind-of-true funny ha-ha internet factoid.

          The effective age of consent is higher, as prefectures all have local laws setting it to something sane, but people say it’s 13 because it was the old national minimum on record up until last year.

          And that national law was literally from over a hundred years back, and was finally updated last year to raise the national minimum to 16. Still lower than the 18 in effect in places like Tokyo.

            • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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              That’s a completely different conversion.

              And you might want to check Japanese conviction rates before making assumptions. Their system is damn near “guilty until proven innocent”.

              Now, whether such crimes actually get reported, is again, another, different conversation. There absolutely are vile predators over there, as a judge publicly commented he thought it was weird he could get arrested for banging a 14-year-old.

              But the ensuing scandal is also the reason why that dude is no longer a judge, and why the national minimum finally got raised.

              • qyron@sopuli.xyz
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                Good to know.

                I had the opportunity to socialize for some time with an immigrant couple in Japan for about 20 years and everything that transpired was essentially against modern liberal egalitarian social norms.

                • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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                  Yeah, things aren’t clear-cut. There are several matters in which Japan is painfully behind, and being such a populus country you can find people with views across the board.

                  But a lax justice system isn’t one of them. In fact Japan almost certainly has a huge problem with ostracising and convicting the innocent. You might hear about people losing their jobs just for getting arrested, even if found innocent.

                  And while laws also definitely need improving, it’s happening.

                  The main problem with stuff like age of consent, is going to be communities and groups of people who are behind on these things, and thereby shielding individuals from justice by keeping the bad things happening out of earshot of society at large. Their justice system might be brutally ruthless, but that doesn’t help if it never finds out about the crime in the first place.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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    Maybe a Japanese politician should be aware of his country’s history on the matter before discussing forced sterilization…

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      If he’s anything like American conservatives he probably appreciates the comparison more than anything

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    As a single (gay) woman over 30 who’s tired of having a uterus I’m moving to japan lmfao