Japanese Minister Urges Elderly to ‘Hurry Up and Die’

Finance Minister Taro Aso has offended tens of millions of Japanese voters a month after the elections by stating that elderly people are too great a burden on state finances, writes the British daily The Guardian on Tuesday.

Elderly people should be allowed to ‘hurry up and die’ to reduce healthcare costs.

– God forbid you have to live when you actually want to die. I would feel worse knowing that the government is paying my healthcare costs – said the minister at a meeting of the national council discussing social welfare reform. ‘The problem can only be solved if you allow them to hurry up and die,’ Aso said.

The minister’s comments will not go unnoticed in a country where nearly a quarter of the 128 million people are over 60 years old, and this will rise to 40 percent in the next 50 years. The rising costs of social programs, especially for the elderly population, were the reason for last year’s decision to double the consumption tax, which was supported by Aso’s Liberal Democratic Party. Today, the 72-year-old minister would refuse medical treatment that would keep him alive and has written instructions to his family so he would not become one of those ‘people on a tube,’ referring to patients who can no longer feed themselves.

Maintaining just one patient in the final stage of life costs tens of millions of yen per month, Aso explained, who is otherwise prone to gaffes. Therefore, he later attempted to clarify his comments by saying he was only speaking about his personal wishes. However, for the finance minister, who is one of the richest Japanese politicians, this is not his first health-related comment, as in 2008, when he was prime minister, he criticized retirees who have difficulty walking and constantly go to the doctor.

– Why should we pay for people who just eat and drink and do not exercise? I walk every day and do other things, yet I pay more taxes for that – said Aso, who also made jokes about Alzheimer’s patients and deemed young men without money unsuitable for marriage.

Not all of Aso’s criticisms are limited to the old and sick. He has compared the opposition party to the Nazis and praised Japanese colonial rule in Taiwan. The minister comes from a wealthy family and during his 2008 campaign refused to say how his family, which exploited coal mines, used hundreds of Allied prisoners during World War II.