It would appear hell hath no fury like a menstruating Japanese woman scorned... As The Daily Star [5]reports, women in Tokyo are threatening a sex boycott against any man who votes for the front-runner in this weekend's critical Abenomics-vote-of-confidence gubernatorial election. The reason? Yoichi Masuzoe, a 65-year-old former political scientist, stated that it would not be proper to have women at the highest level of government because their menstrual cycle makes them irrational. All 16 candidates in the poll are men, with many of them aged in their 60s or older. But Masuzoe's comments about women, as well as other controversial remarks on taxing the elderly, have triggered a backlash.
Women in Tokyo are threatening a sex boycott against any man who votes for the front-runner in this weekend's gubernatorial election, in protest at his claim that menstruation makes women unfit for government.
A Twitter campaign group based in the capital which bills itself as "The association of women who will not have sex with men who vote for (Yoichi) Masuzoe," has garnered almost 3,000 followers since it launched last week.
Although the founders have not identified themselves, in their profile they said: "We have stood up to prevent Mr. Masuzoe, who makes such insulting remarks against women...We won't have sex with men who will vote for Mr. Masuzoe."
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In 1989, he told a men's magazine that it would not be proper to have women at the highest level of government because their menstrual cycle makes them irrational.
"Women are not normal when they are having a period... You can't possibly let them make critical decisions about the country (during their period) such as whether or not to go to war," he said.
Masuzoe has the backing of the conservative ruling party of hawkish Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and is seen as likely to pip his nearest rival, former prime minister Moriyoshi Hosokawa who is standing on an anti-nuclear platform.
All 16 candidates in the poll are men, with many of them aged in their 60s or older.
But Masuzoe's comments about women, as well as other controversial remarks on taxing the elderly, have triggered a backlash.
Another website was launched on Wednesday by a group of women also seeking to prevent Masuzoe from becoming Tokyo governor -- that site has drawn 75,000 hits per day and 2,800 people have signed its petition.
"Masuzoe is an enemy of women...He doesn't love Japan. He loves only himself," said one comment on the site, by a woman who identified herself as Etsuko Sato.
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There are very few women in senior political positions -- Abe's 19-member cabinet has only two -- and company boards are overwhelmingly male.
Of course, this will probably not be a big deal, since, as we noted previously, young Japanese people appear less and less interested in sex anyway [6].
As The Guardian reports [7], 45% of Japanese women aged 16-24 are "not interested in or despise sexual contact". More than a quarter of men feel the same way.