We find it appalling that a sitting member of the Diet has been accused of a human rights violation by a public institution.
Had ruling party lawmaker Mio Sugita taken the warning by the Sapporo Legal Affairs Bureau to heart, she would have immediately issued a statement of remorse. Yet, this has not happened.
It is highly questionable where her past apologies carried any sincerity. There is little doubt that the Liberal Democratic Party member of the Lower House is no longer qualified to serve as a representative of the people.
The issue concerns a 2016 blog post related to the indigenous Ainu of Hokkaido that the bureau labeled a violation of human rights. It issued a notice urging her to become more enlightened about respecting human rights.
In the blog post in question, Sugita mocked ethnic Korean residents and Ainu aboriginal people who wore traditional costumes at a session of the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in 2016.
She derided them as “middle-aged women” who were “completely devoid of dignity” when they appeared at the meeting in “cosplay of Chimageogori and Ainu ethnic costumes.” An Ainu activist submitted an appeal for redress with the bureau.
Sugita has a history of making remarks that indicate a lack of human rights awareness. In a magazine article in 2018, she labeled same-sex couples as “unproductive.” During an LDP meeting on measures to deal with the problem of sexual violence, she said, “Women can lie as much as they want.”
Last summer, upon being appointed parliamentary vice minister for internal affairs and communications in the Kishida administration, she faced severe criticism in the Diet and, at the behest of then internal affairs minister Takeaki Matsumoto, apologized and retracted her blog post. However, she refused to admit to discrimination, only saying, “My poor expression made (the comment) sound as if I had discriminated (against the people).”
How Sugita responds to the Sapporo Legal Affairs Bureau, or what kind of action she will take with regard to people who had sought relief, remains unclear, with her office maintaining “no comment.” She has yet to offer an explanation. She is abandoning the minimum duties as a person in public office.
The Ainu policy promotion law, enacted four years ago, calls for a society where Ainu people can live with pride and which prohibits any form of discrimination against them. It is intolerable for any member of the Diet to trample on this principle. Her discriminatory attitude toward Korean residents in Japan cannot be overlooked, either.
The LDP must be held accountable for Sugita’s actions. Fully aware that Sugita, who once ran on an opposition ticket but was unsuccessful, lacked human rights awareness and held beliefs going against the societal trend of respecting diversity, the ruling party brought her in and helped her get elected twice to the Lower House by placing her high on its list of proportional representation candidates.
If the LDP still continues to protect Sugita, the party will deserve to be criticized for supporting human rights violations.
As online defamation has become a serious social issue, all departments of the government are struggling to tackle the problem. Are the LDP and the government willing to keep a ruling party lawmaker who openly and blatantly attacks minorities go unpunished? This matter is also raising serious questions about the human rights sensitivity of the prime minister, seeing as it was he who first elevated Sugita to the post of a parliamentary vice minister.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 23
EDITORIAL: Lawmaker Mio Sugita not fit for the job, high time for her to go
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23.09.2023
We find it appalling that a sitting member of the Diet has been accused of a human rights violation by a public institution.
Had ruling party lawmaker Mio Sugita taken the warning by the Sapporo Legal Affairs Bureau to heart, she would have immediately issued a statement of remorse. Yet, this has not happened.
It is highly questionable where her past apologies carried any sincerity. There is little doubt that the Liberal Democratic Party member of the Lower House is no longer qualified to serve as a representative of the people.
The issue concerns a 2016 blog post related to the indigenous Ainu of Hokkaido that the bureau labeled a violation of human rights. It issued a notice urging her to become more enlightened about respecting human rights.
In the blog post in question, Sugita mocked ethnic Korean residents and Ainu aboriginal people who wore traditional costumes at a session of the........
© The Asahi Shimbun
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