Opposition lawmaker Yamao quits party over extramarital affair report

Who cares as long as she does her job. People are people sometimes they make mistakes, and besides I wouldn't even want to take a guess at what some of her male colleagues get up to....

So the former "Speed" LDP politician can have an affair and just carry on like nothing ever happened, but this woman not only has to quit her party, but some want her to resign? That is why the opposition will never win again. Grow a pair and stand up for your fellow politician. Also, if this was a man, the reaction would be far less outrage, case in point former Minshinto member Hosono was also accused of having an affair, but he wasn't forced to resign or no demands were made for him to give up his seat!

If the allegations are not true (as she states), she should be suing the magazine for slander, not resigning.

I don't care if she is shacking up with every member of the Bay City Rollers, so long as she does a decent job as a politician. In any event, still no reason to quit.

Who cares about extramarital affairs?

It is a national passtime...

Double standard way too much attention by the media on the actions of two consenting adults. She is a loss to the party and the nation. For being human. I'm suspicious the LDP were behind this as she was quite good at grilling them.

She's probably lying, which is a shame. I'd rather her stand there and tell them all it's absolutely none of their business and should we have a quick show of hands from the room from those who have also had an extra marital affair.

Bet there would be more than a few people squirming uncomfortably in their seats as they sat on their hands.

Double standard hypocrites.

The media and whose behind them will forever be looking for reasons to get the few women in power out of power.

This smells "Becky" all over it, again.

Yamao's affair is soooooo much more serious than Abe's dealings with Kake Gakuen, etc. Glad Abe and Nazi admirer Aso can stay comfortably in place.

(Sarcasm of course.). Jiminto wanted to cut this woman off at the knees because of her threat to Abe.

This is nothing compared to the Nazi-gaffes by the LDP! We're all allowed to choose our own love and dear!

I think Jiminto targeted her as soon as she was announced as #2 for the new Minshuto line-up.

Whenever big political activity occurs a scandal breaks out.

Minshuto should still have her as #2 and start showing some backbone which they are seen as seriously lacking.

It's very poor that the Minshuto will not defend her or her political achievements, they must rate her if she was a potential no. 2, and simply chuck her under the bus as soon as this story broke. It gives the impression that the party image is more important that anything the party might stand for. If the party is just an image, there is no point in voting for it.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a reputedly a womanizer who had multiple affairs, but it is not how he is remembered.

after a magazine reported that she had an extramarital affair.

Gutter journalism at its best/worst. Japan's reactionary media/tabloids are even worse than anglo rags a la Sun, Daily Mail (and all of Murdoch's papers/tv networks) which have been pushing/selling anglo puritanism for decades in that only women are fair game (here).

Another one? Wasnt there a cheating scandal a week or two ago as well? Cheating is rampant. Either way, that's private matters, the people who brought it out in to the media should mind their own business.

Private matters should stay private.

@Garthgoyle

This smells "Becky" all over it, again.

Yes. And Becky is back just as strong as before. It shows the hypocrisy of this kind of story.

I think one's personal affairs, so to speak, are one's business. If someone cheats then that is their business -- people have their reasons. BUT, if they deny it and/or have run on a platform of family values, etc., then I think perhaps resigning is a good idea. This woman denied it vehemently before it was quite clear she was lying (actually, it was quite clear she was having an affair when she denied it). In any case, it's a shame... she was one of the champions in pushing the lack of children's daycare into the front and center.

Now, if only they could drop the double standards.

"I have caused tremendous trouble. I sincerely apologize,"

To who have you caused tremendous trouble???

It's a private matter and it should be kept private. I'm certain 99.99% of people don't care.

Only a sad, lonely, shallow and anally retentive person would care about a stranger's love life.

She made seniors in the LDP squirm thus the media onslaught, an incompetent male is safe a competent female is a danger to the regime.

So what? Who cares what she does in her private life as long as she is a decent MP. It's yet another example of hounding women in the spotlight. Make Nazi loving comments and it's OK, but women having affairs - burn them! Burn the witch!

People have sex with people shocker!

who cares? people's private lives should be private -

It should be noted that a lot of the commentary about Yamao, and thus opinion-forming, will come on morning and daytime tv shows that are watched by women. These shows feature commentators of both sexes, but are always presented by men, with female presenters seemingly only there to give the odd "so desu ne" in agreement. In some cases, the men will be ex-comedians but the woman doing links will be elite-university (Todai etc.) alumni. I repeat that these shows are watched mostly by women. They should demand to be better represented, and/or seek other media outlets, be they blogs, HuffPo, youtubers, or whatever.

Nice.  when I read the headline I automatically assumed it was a man.  although I guess if it were he wouldn't be forced to resign.....

If there are double standards about how infidelity by a woman is viewed in Japan, it's ultimately up to the women of Japan to stick up for themselves and fight it. From hearing them talk, I get the impression some Japanese women take a dim view of others who are ambitious, and of women's issues in general. The ones I know are much more likely to say "support for child raising" is important, not equality for women.

If you are fighting for something, don't let bumps in the road hinder your agenda. She had a great position to fight for working mothers and the need for more daycares? Now what? Back to the beginning. Next time, we need a strong-minded individual to fight for women's rights here.

The issue here is whether a married politician can spend the night at a hotel with someone of the opposite sex. If absolutely no physical contact was made between the two, she would still have to resign by virtue of spending the night at a hotel.

What about the dude she had the affair with? No mention of him.

Why are the men's names never revealed? Always the women's who are the only ones who get vilified. It takes two to tango, after all.

Who cares, unless its a conflict of interest that affects her job its no ones business. Japan is so backwards in its laws and views towards adultery, considering most males seem to think its fine, sexist hypocrits.

if she was a man she would get a pat on the back and a wink, but, this is japan.

She is a pawn in a political battle. The timing of this story is very convenient for Maehara's political opponents. She has been thrown under the bus. Why is her private life relevant to her political career? She has done no wrong, there is no need for her to quit.

I don't care if she is shacking up with every member of the Bay City Rollers

Given the exceptionally vile history of some of the Rollers and their management this is a very strange comment.

@WeiWei

I saw her on TV a while back, checking her website, she was on a few shows since, and she's on posters all over Hakata station...

She seems to be doing very well !

This is only news because of the double standard against women once against exemplified

i dont criticize anyone for living their lives

Bwaaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa

Simply put, I can't see why anyone would criticise this politician for being human. She hasn't really done anything wrong (although I'm sure the puritans and sex police will disagree) and the focus should be on her work and her achievements.

What she does with another consenting adult is nobody's business but hers.

@Dango bong; I never pay attention to the ups and downs, ins and outs of the scoring system here. But thank you, all the same.

I guess, it would be possible to spend nights with him without Sex arising, when purely focused upon Work matters - brain-storming sessions.

But was it the "Politically" appropriate thing to do ?

Clearly not in this case, as someone used it to their advantage to force her to resign.

This is Japan kind of like the french cheating is not cheating here.

BintaroToday  08:32 am JST

Private matters should stay private.

Yes. And Becky is back just as strong as before. It shows the hypocrisy of this kind of story.

Becky is back? Back where? At least not on TV.

@Educator60

"There are also many other examples where the man was named and pictured so I have no idea where you got this idea."

I got the idea because I'm routinely not seeing his name among all the other etails when I'm digesting the mainstream Japanese press, like this Sankei story, and scores of others I could produce.

http://www.sankei.com/politics/news/170907/plt1709070039-n1.html

By "vernacular" press, you mean the tabloids? Yeah, could be. But the mainstream press, the one that carries weight, is willing to break the central journalist principle of who, what, where when, to conceal the names of important men while happily splashing the women's names in large sized print.

If you want to learn more, you can read this, because the double standard is commonly recognized, and certainly not a figment of my imagination!

http://www.nippon.com/en/currents/d00214/

In Japan, there are many gossip weeklies. Politicians caught on Bungee Shinju usually ruin their life.

Often, the person who slept with a politician or movie star sell his/her story or photo to a magazine.

Hope the boy toy was worth it

"I had him help me as a brain." 

The dude was thinking with the "brain" between his legs! Bet the one on his shoulders was bigger!

People making light of this "double furin" would do well to remember there are highly likely to be a cuckolded wife and husband who have been extremely hurt. Yes, infidelity "matters".

The basic problem is that extra marital affairs are prohibited by law in Japan. All Japanese seem to be keenly aware of this.

This is only news because of the double standard against women once against exemplified

I hope you are being sarcastic. These things are always news, for men and women.

By the way, this is the "devoted" mother that popularized the 'Drop dead, Japan!' slogan, right?

I guess she was really angry she couldn't find somewhere to put her kid when she was doing it with another guy.

The thing is that she was the very person who intensively claimed resignation to a lawmaker who once had extramarital affair, before. Plus, she criticized the lack of number of day care center for children as though she was the very representative of mothers who have children, but it turns out she doesn't care her 5 yo child at all. I'm really concerned about his ruined future.

People have sex with people shocker!

hey the FIRST time in history I clicked "+" on a toasted comment!

oh yeah i am sure this is all because the LSP and media want her out. come on! When you are of this status you have to be a bit discreet. i dont criticize anyone for living their lives, affairs or whatever, but at least be smart about it.

spent four nights with him, but of course, we didn't touch other or anything. Just deep conversation. haha

This party is going down in flames