Japanese politician proposes giving newlyweds pierced condoms
How to counter the dwindling birth rate in Japan?
One politician has suggested distributing deliberately punctured condoms to married couples.
His bizarre proposal has, quite rightly, been met with outrage, local media reported on Friday.
Municipal assembly member Tomonaga Osada received a stern warning and was forced to apologise for his remarks, which were made at at a regular assembly meeting last month.
“I cannot deny my comments were disgraceful,” a contrite Mr Osada told the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper. “I’m sorry.”
At the same meeting, he had also suggested handing out locally grown Japanese yams, which are said to boost sexual stamina.
What was the logic behind the crazy proposal?
Mr Osada explained: “I suggested the idea because I thought it would make people feel this city hall was a nice and friendly place. I had no intention to criticise or disrespect people who cannot have a baby.”
If you were thinking that this was the suggestion of a greenhorn in politics, you'd be wrong.
Mr Osada, 49, is serving his third term as a member of the assembly in Shinshiro, a city with a population of around 49,000.
Assembly chair Shogo Natsume told reporters the comments “lacked dignity”, adding that the remarks would be deleted from the record of the June 18 meeting.
Source: AFP
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