This sucks. It’s awful that women have to put up with this. She has to pretend the backhanded compliment of a fascist is constructive criticism.

What an Arso!

This is the best summary I could come up with:

“She’s not that good looking,” Taro Aso, who has a long history of inappropriate remarks, said of Yoko Kamikawa during a recent speech, before awkwardly praising her abilities as a politician.

“I’m aware that there are many different opinions, and I appreciate any and all feedback,” she told reporters, adding that continuing her work as Japan’s most senior diplomat was the most appropriate response to Aso.

Opposition politicians were critical of Aso, who has held senior positions in LDP administrations since serving as prime minister for less than a year before the party was voted out of office in 2009 for first time in more than half a century.

Kaku Sechiyama, a professor of gender studies at the University of Tokyo, told the Asahi: “I understand [Aso] appreciates Kamikawa, but if he were talking about a male foreign minister, he would never mention his appearance.

He has insulted elderly people, blue-eyed diplomats, Alzheimer’s patients and women who choose not to have children, and has expressed admiration for the Nazis, describing Adolf Hitler as “having the right motives”.

Japan performs badly in international comparisons of female political representation, ranking 165th out of 190 countries, with women comprising just 10.3% of lower house MPs, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

The original article contains 558 words, the summary contains 207 words. Saved 63%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

This is what happens when your culture has been male-dominated for centuries and you never had women with power in high-level positions.

This is not just Aso. His party believes it’s OK to think and act like that.