Photo/Illutration Mio Sugita, left, appears next to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba as an Upper House election candidate at the Liberal Democratic Party convention on March 9. (Koichi Ueda)

The ruling party’s decision to field former party lawmaker Mio Sugita in the Upper House election this summer has generated a backlash due to her past discriminatory remarks.

Sugita was introduced as one of the candidates at the Liberal Democratic Party convention on March 9, a day after she was put on the party’s proportional representation list.

A former Lower House member, she shook hands with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on stage and waved to party members from around the nation.

Many LDP lawmakers expressed concerns, however.

“For God’s sake,” a mid-ranking Upper House member said. “Nothing good will come of this.”

A veteran Lower House member said, “By putting her on the party ticket, we could lose votes instead of gaining them.”

Sugita has a history of making remarks that indicate a lack of human rights awareness.

In a 2016 blog post, she derided ethnic Korean residents and indigenous Ainu aboriginal people who attended a U.N. conference in traditional costumes as “middle-aged women in cosplay.”

In 2023, the Sapporo Legal Affairs Bureau and the Justice Ministry recognized her remark as a violation of human rights.

Asked about the controversy after the LDP convention, Sugita dismissed it as a “done deal,” saying that she already deleted the post and apologized.

In 2018, Sugita essentially said same-sex couples are “unproductive” because they do not produce children in an article contributed to a magazine.

The LDP leadership dissuaded Sugita from seeking re-election in the Lower House election in October because she was implicated in a political fund scandal.

She grudgingly agreed but has instead sought the party’s endorsement in running in the Upper House election.

Sugita, who joined the LDP at the invitation of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has gained support from conservative constituents.

The LDP leadership appears to have received requests from former senior members of the Abe faction to put her on the party ticket.

LDP Secretary-General Hiroshi Moriyama emphasized that the ruling party has never condoned Sugita’s discriminatory remarks.

“We urge her to make a thorough self-reflection,” he told a news conference on March 10.

Masaji Matsuyama, who serves as LDP secretary-general in the Upper House, said on March 11 that Sugita must be aware of the problems and pay more attention to her conduct.

At a news conference that day, Makoto Nishida, secretary-general of the junior coalition partner, Komeito, said Sugita owes the public a fuller explanation.

Ishiba is believed to have reluctantly agreed to put Sugita on the party ticket.

At an Upper House plenary session on March 12, the prime minister said voters will ultimately decide in the election whether the LDP decision was appropriate.

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