S/ Kamiya Sohei, Sanseito party leader / The only people who can give birth are young women. There are people who say that this remark is discrimination, but that's not true. This is reality. You see, men and, I'm sorry to say, older women cannot give birth.

The leader of Sanseito, an emerging political party, made these remarks in a stump speech in Tokyo’s Ginza area as official campaigning for the House of Councillors election got underway on July 3.

He was calling for creating a society where young women can have children and live with peace of mind, as part of efforts to tackle the continued decline of Japan's population.

In a live stream video posted on the party's official YouTube channel, a segment of just over 30 seconds, including part of the remarks in question, were covered with a color bar screen with no sound.

Sanseito explained in a post on the X platform that the portion was affected by equipment trouble due to hot weather.