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Japan's new government is barely a month old, and already one of its most senior members has insulted tens of millions of voters by suggesting that the elderly are an unnecessary drain on the country's finances.
Taro Aso, the finance minister, said
on Monday that the elderly should be allowed to "hurry up
and die" to relieve pressure on the state to pay for their
medical care. "Heaven forbid if you are forced to live on
when you want to die. I would wake up feeling increasingly bad
knowing that [treatment] was all being paid for by the government,"
he said during a meeting of the national council on social security
reforms. "The problem won't be solved unless you let them
hurry up and die."
Aso's comments are likely to cause offence in Japan, where almost
a quarter of the 128 million population is aged over 60. The proportion
is forecast to rise to 40% over the next 50 years.
The remarks are also an unwelcome
distraction for the new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, whose first
period as Japan's leader ended with his resignation after just
a year, in 2007, partly due to a string of gaffes by members of
his cabinet.
Rising welfare costs, particularly for the elderly, were behind
a decision last year to double consumption [sales] tax to 10%
over the next three years, a move Aso's Liberal Democratic party
supported.
The 72-year-old, who doubles as deputy
prime minister, said he would refuse end-of-life care. "I
don't need that kind of care," he said in comments quoted
by local media, adding that he had written a note instructing
his family to deny him life-prolonging medical treatment.
To compound the insult, he referred to elderly patients who are
no longer able to feed themselves as "tube people".
The health and welfare ministry, he added, was "well aware
that it costs several tens of millions of yen" a month to
treat a single patient in the final stages of life.
Cost aside, caring for the elderly
is a major challenge for Japan's stretched social services. According
to a report this week, the number of households receiving welfare,
which include family members aged 65 or over, stood at more than
678,000, or about 40% of the total. The country is also tackling
a rise in the number of people who die alone, most of whom are
elderly. In 2010, 4.6 million elderly people lived alone, and
the number who died at home soared 61% between 2003 and 2010,
from 1,364 to 2,194, according to the bureau of social welfare
and public health in Tokyo.
The government is planning to reduce welfare expenditure in its
next budget, due to go into force this April, with details of
the cuts expected within days.
Aso, who has a propensity for verbal
blunders, later attempted to clarify his comments. He acknowledged
his language had been "inappropriate" in a public forum
and insisted he was talking only about his personal preference.
"I said what I personally believe, not what the end-of-life
medical care system should be," he told reporters. "It
is important that you be able spend the final days of your life
peacefully."
It is not the first time Aso, one
of Japan's wealthiest politicians, has questioned the state's
duty towards its large elderly population. In 2008, while serving
as prime minister, he described "doddering" pensioners
as tax burdens who should take better care of their health.
"I see people aged 67 or 68 at class reunions who dodder
around and are constantly going to the doctor," he said at
a meeting of economists. "Why should I have to pay for people
who just eat and drink and make no effort? I walk every day and
do other things, but I'm paying more in taxes."
He had already angered the country's
doctors by telling them they lacked common sense, made a joke
about Alzheimer's patients, and pronounced "penniless young
men" unfit for marriage.
In 2001, he said he wanted Japan to become the kind of successful
country in which "the richest Jews would want to live".
He once likened an opposition party to the Nazis, praised Japan's
colonial rule in Taiwan and, as foreign minister, told US diplomats
they would never be trusted in Middle East peace negotiations
because they have "blue eyes and blond hair".
While figures released on Monday showed
a record 2.14 million Japanese were receiving welfare in October
2012, Aso has led a life of privilege few of his compatriots could
hope to match.
He is the grandson of Shigeru Yoshida, an influential postwar
prime minister, and is married to the daughter of another former
premier.
While campaigning for the premiership in 2008, Aso refused to acknowledge the use of hundreds of allied prisoners of war by his family's coal mining business during the second world war. He served as president of the firm's successor, Aso Cement, from 1973-79.
