The Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has sacked an aide who said he would not want to live next to LGBTQ+ couples and that people would flee Japan if same-sex marriage was permitted.
In remarks reported by local media, Masayoshi Arai, an economy and trade official who joined Kishida’s staff as a secretary in October, said he did not even want to look at same-sex couples.
“His comments are outrageous and completely incompatible with the administration’s policies,” Kishida said on Saturday, in remarks aired by the public broadcaster NHK.
Speaking to reporters later in the day, the leader said he had dismissed Arai, who had earlier apologised for “misleading” comments he made on Friday.
Arai had made the remarks after Kishida said in parliament that same-sex marriage needed careful consideration because of its potential impact on the family structure.
The incident is an embarrassment for Kishida as he prepares to host the leaders of the other G7 countries in May. Unlike Japan, which has been ruled by the conservative Liberal Democratic party for most of the past seven decades, the rest of the G7 allow marriage or civil unions for same-sex couples.
According to recent opinion polls, Kishida’s public support has halved to about 30% since last year after a series of scandal-tainted resignations by senior officials.
Among those who stepped down was Mio Sugita, an internal affairs and communications vice-minister, who quit in December over controversial comments about LGBTQ+ people and Japan’s Indigenous Ainu people.
In a survey published by NHK in July 2021, two months before Kishida became prime minister, 57% of 1,508 respondents said they supported the legal recognition of same-sex unions.
Because they are not allowed to marry, same-sex couples cannot inherit each other’s assets and are denied parental rights to each other’s children.
In November, a Tokyo court upheld a ban on same-sex marriage, but said a lack of legal protection for same-sex families violated their human rights.
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