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Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has dismissed one of his secretaries for homophobic comments that the prime minister called \u201coutrageous\u201d.<\/p>\n
Kishida said the remarks by Masayoshi Arai, in which he said he \u201cdoesn\u2019t even want to look at\u201d married same-sex couples, were \u201coutrageous\u201d and \u201cincompatible\u201d with an inclusive society the government is aiming for.<\/p>\n
\u201cI made the decision to relieve him of his position as secretary,\u201d Kishida told reporters on Saturday.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Arai, an economy and trade official who joined Kishida\u2019s staff as a secretary in October, said he \u201cwouldn\u2019t like it if they lived next door\u201d and that people would \u201cabandon the country if we allow same-sex marriage\u201d, according to public broadcaster NHK.<\/p>\n
The 55-year-old apologised later, saying his remarks were not appropriate, even if they were his personal opinion.<\/p>\n
The dismissal is a further blow to Kishida\u2019s government, which has faced plummeting approval ratings since last year.<\/p>\n
Kishida has lost four ministers in just three months, including over allegations of financial irregularities or links to the controversial Unification Church.<\/p>\n
Among those who stepped down was Mio Sugita, an internal affairs and communications vice minister, who quit in December over controversial comments about LGBTQ+ people and Japan\u2019s Indigenous Ainu community.<\/p>\n
Japan is the only nation in the Group of Seven industrialised countries not to recognise same-sex marriage, although recent media polls show a majority support such unions.<\/p>\n
Arai\u2019s comments had come after Kishida had said in parliament that same-sex marriage needed careful consideration because of its potential effect on the family structure.<\/p>\n
More than a dozen couples have filed lawsuits in district courts across Japan arguing the ban on same-sex marriage violates the Constitution.<\/p>\n
In November last year, a court in Japan\u2019s capital upheld a ban on same-sex marriage but said a lack of legal protection for same-sex families violated their human rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has dismissed one of his secretaries for homophobic comments that the prime minister called \u201coutrageous\u201d. Kishida said the remarks by Masayoshi Arai, in which he said he \u201cdoesn\u2019t even want to look at\u201d married same-sex couples, were \u201coutrageous\u201d and \u201cincompatible\u201d with an inclusive society the government is aiming for. \u201cI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":184205,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10221280388112155_325455220908133":"","twitter_917774835383787521_917774835383787521":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184204"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184204"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184206,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184204\/revisions\/184206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}