Gaffe-prone Aso alludes to gender as reason female lawmaker verbally abused secretary

Jun 26, 2017 | News On Japan

Jun 26, 2017 (Japan Times) - Gaffe-prone Finance Minister Taro Aso made a comment Saturday about a junior lawmaker from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party who indicated her intent to leave the party due to allegations that she abused one of her secretaries, stressing her gender.

"If you take a look only at her academic background, it is impeccable, but she is a woman," Aso told a group of LDP lawmakers belonging to his faction during a meeting in Shibata, Niigata Prefecture.

According to a report in the edition of the weekly magazine Shukan Shincho that hit newsstands Thursday, second-term Lower House lawmaker Mayuko Toyota was sitting in the back seat of a car driven by one of her secretaries on May 20 when she yelled "baldy!" at him and struck him several times on the head and face, causing injuries.

Toyota, who graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1997 and earned a master's degree at the Harvard School of Public Health in 2002, was an official at the health ministry until she won a Lower House election in 2012.

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