A Japanese lawmaker is facing heavy criticism after he said the nation would “collapse” if everyone became LGBT+.
Katsuei Hirasawa of the Liberal Democratic Party made the comments at an event in Japan on Thursday, with the comments broadcast on Nippon News Network the following day.
He told the gathered crowd: “Criticizing LGBT would create problems, but if everyone became like them, then a country would collapse.”
Hirasawa also said he did not understand moves to legalize same-sex marriage in some regions of Japan, and lamented the country's low birth rate, according to the Washington Post.
Anti-LGBT+ sentiment in Japan is often linked to the country's low birth rates. In 2017, it was reported that birth rates in the country had fallen to their lowest rate since records began in 1899.
