Ever since the Liberal Democratic Party regained power last year, standard-bearer Shinzo Abe has been conspicuously cautious with his public pronouncements, cooling it on the nationalist rhetoric and keeping the bravado to a minimum. Deprived of excitement, the media was delighted by Vice Prime Minister Taro Aso's comment, made at a government meeting to discuss social-security reform, that sick old people should "hurry up and die" (sassa-to shineru yo ni shite morau) and relieve the country of the financial burden of taking care of them. Aso's penchant for gaffes has always endeared him to both the domestic and foreign press as someone who makes the predictable political beat in Japan a little more interesting, and the quote, which everyone agreed "insulted" the elderly, was reported in the spirit of entertainment, as if to say, "He's back, and more offensive than ever!"

As always happens when Aso gets eyes a-rolling, he later apologized, qualifying the remark as his own personal preference with regard to terminal care, which hardly placated anyone since he's one of the richest men in the country and can afford any type of care he desires. Nevertheless, most media overlooked the context. The Social Security Citizens Conference where he uttered the remark was a condition demanded by the Democratic Party of Japan in return for calling a general election last fall. Before it became the ruling party, the DPJ pledged to reform social welfare, and the conference is a means of maintaining a dialogue on the subject. The DPJ made the LDP promise to continue it even though the LDP is not interested in changing a system it created in the first place. Aso, an infamous straight talker with a streak of impatience, didn't enjoy participating in a function he considered a waste of time and stated his views without any varnish of tact.

In an editorial, Asahi Shimbun's Yotaro Hamada thought Aso was making a political statement on a topic that is taboo regardless of the manner in which it is approached. Four years ago, before the DPJ took power, the LDP proposed that doctors discuss end-of-life scenarios with patients in order to put down in writing whether or not those patients desired extraordinary measures to stay alive, including the use of respirators. The media bolstered public resistance to the proposal by focusing on a minor administrative aspect that allowed doctors to charge ¥2,000 to draw up documents for refusing "life-prolonging care," thus giving it a mercenary cast. Weekly magazines warned that greedy doctors would "leave boomers to die."