What the hell is wrong with MEN?

Japan's health minister calls women 'birth-giving machines'

Japan's health minister described women as "birth-giving machines" in a speech on the country's falling birthrate, but later retracted the remarks, news reports said Sunday.

"The number of women between the ages of 15 and 50 is fixed. The number of birth-giving machines (and) devices is fixed, so all we can ask is that they do their best per head," Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa said in a speech Saturday, the Asahi and Mainichi newspapers reported.

Speaking to Kyodo News agency later in the day, Yanagisawa apologized saying the language he used was "too uncivil."

Japan's birth rate was 1.26 babies per woman in her lifetime in 2005, a record low and far below the level needed to keep the country's population steady.

Japan is one of the most densely-populated countries in the world. They are masters at "minimalism", because it addresses the needs of its culture. Conversely, they are dependent on the world for the raw resources needed for production of the goods they trade with the world.

The government has been scrambling to implement measures to persuade couples to have more children.

A proposal adopted in June calls for increasing child care, promoting greater gender equality, and encouraging companies to be more flexible in allowing staff time to take care of family responsibilities.

But the high cost of raising children, as well as the lingering notion that women should quit their jobs after giving birth, has meant many opt to have few or no children

You know, just when I think we're making progress against males' stereotypical attitudes toward women, we see that we haven't progressed past "baby-makers".

Just when I think we're making progress on a every woman's right to make her own decisions and not have religion derail the train of progress, we see that another group/society/culture wants to send us back into "our traditional roles"—wombs on two legs. (Not to mention, save Japan from a loss of taxpayers???)

Just when I think we might start to address overpopulation and its attendant crush of problems,

• we see Europeans worried about "muslim production" (they might be right),
• Americans worried about the "brown people's population explosion" (pot-kettle/kettle-pot, "go forth and multiply" stupidity of christianist women),
• Mormons/Quiverfulls/Catholics,
• Womb Transplants and more…

and now this insulting and insane MAN!

This shit has got to stop!

Somewhere between overpopulation and "The Children of Men" is a happy medium. Can we please find it and work toward it?