Japan Prime Minister Fires Aide Over LGBT Remarks

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has fired an aide who said he wouldn’t want to live next to lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender couples and warned that people would flee Japan if same-sex marriage was permitted.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Saturday announced that he has dismissed his secretary Masayoshi Arai over discriminatory remarks against the LGBT community.

He was appointed an executive secretary to the prime minister in October 2021, when the Kishida administration took office, from his post as director general of the commerce and information policy bureau at METI.