People celebrating Pride in Tokyo | Photo: Facebook/Tokyo Rainbow Pride
A homophobic article — and several follow-up articles — has led to the indefinite suspension of a Japanese magazine.
Shinchosha Publishing Co. announced Tuesday night (25 September) that it is essentially folding one of its magazines, Shincho 45. Its October issue will be its last.
Founded in 1985, its problem stem from an article published in their August issue by Mio Sugita. Sugita is a junior lawmaker in the ruling political party, the Liberal Democratic Party.
Shinchosha Publishing President Takanobu Sato said Sugita’s article had ‘outrageous prejudice’ and a ‘lack of understanding’ towards LGBTI people.
Sugita’s article described LGBTI people as ‘unproductive’ when it comes to childbirth. Due to this reason, she argued taxpayer money shouldn’t support same-sex couples.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke out about Sugita, saying she needs to be ‘more mindful of her words’. He also said the article hurt because he is childless.
Regardless, he did not call for her to step down.
Then it got worse
In its issue this month, Shinco 45 made matters worse.
They published seven new articles defending Sugita’s original piece with a series called, ‘What’s so Wrong About the Mio Sugita Article?’
Conservative commentator Eitaro Ogawa wrote one of the contributing articles. In his piece, he compared the LGBT community to ‘SMAG’, a term he made up himself, which stands for: sadist, masochist, ass fetish, and groper.
Ogawa further argued that if people have a right to protect individuals in the LGBT community, ‘shouldn’t our society also protect the rights of gropers (who) can’t resist the urge to grope once they have caught a whiff of a female’s smell on a crowed train?’
Some places, like a bookstore in Wakayama Prefecture, are temporarily halting all sales of Shinchosha titles in protest.
H/t: Japan Times
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