A female lawmaker in Japan who found herself in a personal emergency made a call on social media for free sanitary products in public buildings. Her seemingly simple request was ridiculed by one of Japan’s worst politicians – and resulted in her receiving an automated stream of death threats to boot.
Free pad call leads to conservative pushback
27-year-old Japanese Communist Party (JCP) member Yoshida Ayaka is a member of the Mie Prefectural Assembly. Two years ago, at age 25, she became the youngest assembly member ever elected to office there.
On March 25th, Yoshida inadvertently opened a firestorm of “controversy” with an X post in which she wrote: “Was in a fix today when my period came on suddenly. Sadly, the Tsu [capital of Mie] city hall didn’t have any sanitary pads. Had to wait until I got home to handle it. This stuff happens even at age 27. Sanitary napkins for periods should be made available for free anywhere, like toilet paper.”
As usually happens on the Internet when a woman suggests things be made only slightly easier for half of the population, people freaked out. Some took her to task for not being prepared in case of an emergency and having pads on her. Others asked why she didn’t buy some from the Family Mart in Tsu City Hall.
Members of Japan’s hard-right also dismissed the suggestion. Out-of-work politician Sugita Mio – an established anti-LGBTQ and anti-indigenous bigot – said it’s “womanly etiquette” to always have a spare somewhere.
Sugita was one of the members of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party implicated in the recent slush fund financial scandal. She was reported to have taken 15.64 million yen ($105,000) of party money between 2018 and 2022 that she didn’t report as income.
Others, however, leapt to Yoshida’s defense. LChannel, an LGBTQ+ account, noted that Scotland has made free period products available to women for years. It’s not just Scotland, either: in 2021, Nakano City Hall in Tokyo installed sanitary pad dispensers that can be accessed with a smartphone app. Nakano said it introduced the service to make it easier for women in their childbearing years to maintain their health and to reduce the associated financial burden.
Other defenders of Yoshida’s suggestion noted that some young girls may have not been taught about their periods by their parents, or may feel too embarrassed to buy sanitary pads during an emergency situation. They also argue that sanitary products are basic health care that should be available to anyone, regardless of income.
Takeuchi Ai, another JCP politician, noted that the pushback from men and their far-right female supporters is nothing new. She recounted on her X account how, when she proposed distributing free sanitary products at schools in Itabashi City in Tokyo, men in the conservative Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito parties, and even in the more liberal Constitutional Democratic Party, opposed the idea – as did women in the conservative parties.
Automated death threats over women’s health care
At least one person, however, was so offended by Yoshida’s suggestion that they thought she should die over it.
On March 31st, Yoshida held a press conference addressing the issue. In a write-up of the press conference, the JCP’s magazine, Akihata, noted that the threats started pouring in after Sugita’s re-post chiding Yoshida.
Yoshida says that, at the time of the press conference, she’d received 8,000 death threats from a single address. The threats were arriving at the rate of one per minute and read:
“I’m going to kill Assemblywoman Yoshida Ayaka – she’s a grown woman who can’t even bring an emergency pad with her!”
Yoshida said she was “afraid” after receiving the message – but stuck to her guns.
“Not carrying around sanitary napkins isn’t something you should be scolding women for,” she said. “Trying to silence a woman who raised her voice makes me want to speak out more strongly.”
“I won’t stand for this attempt to silence women,” she reiterated.
Yoshida has filed a police report over the threats. Mie Prefecture police are actively investigating.
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