Girls forced to continue study 'end up becoming hostesses': LDP lawmaker Akaeda

Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) legislator Tsuneo Akaeda has come under fire for suggesting during an April 12 meeting on child poverty that girls compelled to take correspondence courses simply end up joining hostess clubs.

"Even if girls take correspondence courses because their parents have made them do it, they just end up becoming hostesses anyway," Akaeda, a Tokyo proportional representation block lawmaker in the House of Representatives, was quoted as saying.

Akaeda, 72, made the remarks during a gathering of a suprapartisan lawmakers union promoting policies related to child poverty.

Opposition lawmakers on April 13 criticized this and other similar remarks by Akaeda, with one branding them "an expression of profession-based discrimination that reflects the arrogance of the Liberal Democratic Party."

In response to a request that scholarships be expanded for university students who grew up in children's institutions, Akaeda commented, "This is disappointing. Attending high school and university should be one's own personal responsibility."

He continued by saying that students who are forced to continue their education "end up marrying after getting pregnant and then divorcing, and becoming single parents living in poverty while still at a young age."

Kazunori Yamanoi, acting chief of the Diet Affairs Committee of the Democratic Party, said during a news conference on April 13 that "such comments express contempt for young women who come from backgrounds of poverty."

Noritoshi Ishida, Policy Research Council chairman of the LDP's junior coalition partner Komeito, took a similarly critical view. "This does not sit well with me," he said. "There are certain economic hurdles that cannot be overcome through one's personal efforts alone."

Akaeda, an obstetrician and gynecologist, is serving his second term in office.