Keeping mum has never been a strong point of politicians. Hakuo Yanagisawa, the beleaguered health, labor and welfare minister, seems especially bad at keeping mum on the subject of mums. In his world, mums are machines. Their sole function is to breed.

Having established that particular piece of wisdom, he has now gone on to make the point that all healthy young people should want to have at least two children. Thus the benchmark has been set for the evaluation of all mum machines. Two is the magical figure. Any mum machine worthy of its name must clear that threshold.

What's the penalty for failing to "deliver," one wonders. Shutdown? Demolition? Replacement?