page_title: Tarō Asō
section_title: Controversial statements
hierarchical_section_title: Tarō Asō / Controversial statements
context_page_description: Tarō Asō is a Japanese politician who has been Deputy Prime Minister of Japan and Minister of Finance since December 2012. Asō previously served as Prime Minister of Japan from September 2008 to September 2009.
  Asō was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1979. He served in numerous roles, including as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2005 to 2007, and became Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party in 2008, having also held that role temporarily in 2007. He was later elected LDP President in September 2008, becoming Prime Minister the same month. He led the LDP to its worst election result in its history a year later, marking only the second time in post-war Japan that a governing party had lost re-election. The LDP returned to government following the 2012 election under Shinzo Abe, and Asō was appointed to the Cabinet as Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister.
context_section_description: In 2001, as economics minister, he was quoted as saying he wanted to make Japan a country where "rich Jews" would like to live.
  On 15 October 2005, during the opening ceremony of the Kyushu National Museum which also displays how other Asian cultures have influenced Japanese cultural heritage, he praised Japan for having "one culture, one civilization, one language, and one ethnic group", and stated that it was the only such country in the world. This statement sparked controversy for what critics described as invoking Japan's imperialist and racist past.
  At a lecture in Nagasaki Prefecture, Asō referred to a Japanese peace initiative on the Middle East, stating, "The Japanese were trusted because they had never been involved in exploitation there, or been involved in fights or fired machine guns. Japan is doing what the Americans can't do. It would probably be no good to have blue eyes and blond hair. Luckily, we Japanese have yellow faces."
  Kyodo News reported that he had said on 4 February 2006, "our predecessors did a good thing" regarding compulsory education implemented during Japan's colonization of Taiwan.
   
  On 21 December 2005, he said China was "a neighbour with one billion people equipped with nuclear bombs and has expanded its military outlays by double digits for 17 years in a row, and it is unclear as to what this is being used for. It is beginning to be a considerable threat". On 28 January 2006, he called for the emperor to visit the controversial Yasukuni shrine. He later backtracked on the comment, but stated that he hoped such a visit would be possible in the future.
  Mainichi Daily News reported that on 9 March 2006 he referred to Taiwan as a "law-abiding country", which drew strong protest from Beijing, which considers the island a part of China.
  On 23 September 2008, Akahata, the daily newspaper published by Japanese Communist Party released a compiled list of these and other statements as the front-page article criticizing Asō. This compilation as well as similar lists of blunders have been frequently cited in the Japanese media.
  Yahoo! News reported that he had said on 9 January 2009, "To work is good. It's completely different thinking from the Old Testament."
  While speaking at a meeting of the National Council on Social Security Reform, in 2013, Asō referred to patients suffering from serious illness as "tube persons" and remarked that they should be "allowed to die quickly" if they desired it. "Heaven forbid I should be kept alive if I want to die", he is quoted as saying. "You cannot sleep well when you think it's all paid by the government. This won't be solved unless you let them hurry up and die."
  In 2014, while campaigning in Sapporo for the general election, Asō said that rising social welfare costs were not solely due to an aging population. He said, "There are many people who are creating the image that (the increasing number of) elderly people is bad, but more problematic is people who don't give birth". The comment was labeled as insensitive to those who are not able to have children for biological or economic reasons.
  The Guardian reported on 30 August 2017, that he said, "Hitler, who killed millions of people, was no good even if his motive was right." He later retracted the remarks.
  Asō caused controversy in June 2018 when he boasted that the large support towards the LDP among voters under 35 in the 2017 general election was due to that demographic being illiterate about the news and current affairs.
  In May 2018, Asō downplayed alleged sexual harassment charges against his ministry's top bureaucrat by saying that "there is no such thing as a sexual harassment charge." When asked to comment on a formal complaint submitted to his ministry on the alleged sexual harassment, Asō remarked that his "only thought was that it would have been easier to read if they used a bigger font."
caption: Tarō Asō shakes hands with then Secretary of State of U.S. Condoleezza Rice at APEC summit in 2005
exif: {}