Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida fired one of his aides on Saturday for making anti-LGBTQ comments, calling them “outrageous and completely incompatible with administration policies.”
Masayoshi Arai, an economic official who joined the Kishida administration last fall, said people would leave the country if same-sex marriage were allowed, adding that he would not want to live together with a gay or lesbian couple. don’t even look at them, local new outlets informed.
He later apologized for what he said were “misleading” comments.
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Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida fired an aide on Saturday for offensive comments about gay and lesbian couples.
(Photo by Eugene Hoshiko-Pool/Getty Images)
The dismissal comes as Japan prepares to welcome the United States and other allies for the Group of 7 meeting in May.
Japan is the only G-7 country that does not legally recognize same-sex marriage or civil unions.
Another of Kishida’s aides resigned late last year after making anti-LGBTQ comments.
Kishida’s approval ratings are also underwater after a series of resignations as national support for same-sex marriage grows, opinion polls show.
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Last November, a Tokyo court upheld the ban on same-sex marriage, but also said that having no legal protection for gay or lesbian couples was a violation of human rights.
Reuters contributed to this report.
