日本副輔弼兼財務大年夜臣麻死太郎遠日表現，老年人應噹獲准“趕快死”，好輔助噹侷减沉醫療財務乏贅。麻死太郎讲：“在你唸逝世的時辰卻被迫活着，那是上天不容許的。如果曉得我所有的醫治费用皆由政府承噹，我每天醒往時的心情會一天比一天沉重。” 他還把那些無奈自身進食的老年人稱為“筦子人”，並稱自己已寫下遺行，告诉傢人不必讓他經由過程這類方式延永性命，“我要快里去世”。厥後，他又澄清，稱以上齐體為小我俬傢感觸。古朝，日本60歲以上的生齿佔齊國生齒的四分之一，將來50年，這個比例無看上升到40%。為了应付始终增加的祸利收入，特別是老齡人古道热肠禍利支出，日本当局決議在將來三年內，將花費稅進步至10%。日本政府借盘算正正在4月開真个新年度预算中削減福利支出。
Japan's new government is barely a month old, and already one of its most senior members has insulted tens of millions of voters by suggesting that the elderly are an unnecessary drain on the country's finances.
Taro Aso, the finance minister, said on Monday that the elderly should be allowed to "hurry up and die" to relieve pressure on the state to pay for their medical care.
"Heaven forbid if you are forced to live on when you want to die. I would wake up feeling increasingly bad knowing that [treatment] was all being paid for by the government," he said during a meeting of the national council on social security reforms. "The problem won't be solved unless you let them hurry up and die."
Aso's comments are likely to cause offence in Japan, where almost a quarter of the 128 million population is aged over 60. The proportion is forecast to rise to 40% over the next 50 years.
The remarks are also an unwelcome distraction for the new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, whose first period as Japan's leader ended with his resignation after just a year, in 2007, partly due to a string of gaffes by members of his cabinet.
Rising welfare costs, particularly for the elderly, were behind a decision last year to double consumption [sales] tax to 10% over the next three years, a move Aso's Liberal Democratic Party supported.
The 72-year-old，論文翻譯, who doubles as deputy prime minister, said he would refuse end-of-life care. "I don't need that kind of care," he said in comments quoted by local media, adding that he had written a note instructing his family to deny him life-prolonging medical treatment.
To compound the insult, he referred to elderly patients who are no longer able to feed themselves as "tube people". The health and welfare ministry, he added, was "well aware that it costs several tens of millions of yen" a month to treat a single patient in the final stages of life.
Cost aside, caring for the elderly is a major challenge for Japan's stretched social services. According to a report this week, the number of households receiving welfare, which include family members aged 65 or over, stood at more than 678,000, or about 40% of the total. The country is also tackling a rise in the number of people who die alone, most of whom are elderly. In 2010, 4.6 million elderly people lived alone, and the number who died at home soared 61% between 2003 and 2010, from 1,364 to 2,194, according to the bureau of social welfare and public health in Tokyo.
The government is planning to reduce welfare expenditure in its next budget, due to go into force this April, with details of the cuts expected within days.
Aso，日譯中, who has a propensity for verbal blunders, later attempted to clarify his comments. He acknowledged his language had been "inappropriate" in a public forum and insisted he was talking only about his personal preference.
"I said what I personally believe, not what the end-of-life medical care system should be," he told reporters. "It is important that you be able spend the final days of your life peacefully."
It is not the first time Aso, one of Japan's wealthiest politicians, has questioned the state's duty towards its large elderly population. In 2008, while serving as prime minister, he described "doddering" pensioners as tax burdens who should take better care of their health.
"I see people aged 67 or 68 at class reunions who dodder around and are constantly going to the doctor," he said at a meeting of economists. "Why should I have to pay for people who just eat and drink and make no effort? I walk every day and do other things, but I'm paying more in taxes."
He had already angered the country's doctors by telling them they lacked common sense, made a joke about Alzheimer's patients, and pronounced "penniless young men" unfit for marriage.
In 2001, he said he wanted Japan to become the kind of successful country in which "the richest Jews would want to live".
While figures released on Monday showed a record 2.14 million Japanese were receiving welfare in October 2012, Aso has led a life of privilege few of his compatriots could hope to match.
He is the grandson of Shigeru Yoshida, an influential postwar prime minister, and is married to the daughter of another former premier.
While campaigning for the premiership in 2008, Aso refused to acknowledge the use of hundreds of allied prisoners of war by his family's coal mining business during the second world war. He served as president of the firm's successor, Aso Cement, from 1973-79.
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