 JCP demands that Tokyo governor apologize for insulting women The Japanese Communist Party in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly on March 2 demanded that Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintaro retract his insulting comments regarding women in a weekly magazine and offer an apology. JCP representative Kachi Kayoko pointed out that the Tokyo District Court on February 24 ruled that the governor clearly expressed his personal biased views when he made the remarks. She said that the governor must not evade the responsibility by saying that he merely quoted a scholar. The governor in reply said that the trial was biased, and even slandered the plaintiffs who brought the issue to court as "demagogues who use typically communist ways." Arizono Eiko, one of the plaintiffs who sat for the assembly, said, "It won't do anyone any good to have a governor who says that a judgment is biased because he doesn't like it and that a group of people should be excluded because they think differently from him. I want to make this arrogance known to as many people as possible." In October 2001, Governor Ishihara said in a magazine article, allegedly citing a scholar, "Old women are the most harmful consequence of civilization. It is a waste and evil for women to survive after they have lost their reproductive capability." (end) |