Tue Feb 14, 2023 – 6:53 pm EST
(LifeSiteNews) — A Yale University professor has provoked backlash over his suggestion that “mass suicide” of the elderly is the “only solution” to economic problems posed by Japan’s quickly aging population.
“I feel like the only solution is pretty clear,” Yale assistant professor of economics Yusuke Narita said during a late 2021 news discussion on Japan’s demographic problems, according to The New York Times.
“In the end, isn’t it mass suicide and mass ‘seppuku’ of the elderly?” he added, referring the ritualistic suicide by disembowelment historically used by Samurai and other Japanese to restore honor for themselves or their families.
During the same discussion, other commentators proposed, on the contrary, that Japan’s “only option is to increase the number of children,” and that the country’s problem “is not that the elderly are alive and well,” but that it has to give them “generous pensions.”
The New York Times reported Sunday that Narita’s remarks went viral last month when several commentators reshared his controversial statements on social media. A posting of the original panel discussion by Japanese news outlet Abema has at least 2 million views.
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