Mio Sugita

Mio Sugita
Mio Sugita
杉田水脈
	Official portrait, 2018
Member of the House of Representatives
	In office; 23 October 2017 – 9 October 2024
Constituency	Chugoku PR
	In office; 17 December 2012 – 21 November 2014
Constituency	Kinki PR
Personal details
Born	22 April 1967 (age 57); Tarumi, Kobe, Japan
Political party	LDP (since 2017)
Other political; affiliations	Your (2010–2012); JRP (2012–2014); PJK (2014–2017)
Alma mater	Tottori University

Mio Sugita (杉田水脈, Sugita Mio, born April 22, 1967) is a Japanese activist. She is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan served as a member of the House of Representatives from 2012 to 2014, and again from 2017 to 2024.^[1]

Sugita has been criticized for her conservative views, including comments against gender diversity, the LGBT community,^[2] Ainu people, and Korean people. She spoke out on a streamed program in 2015 that the LGBT community should not receive support from taxpayer's money, and repeated her claim in a monthly magazine piece in 2018.^[2]^[3]

The Kishida cabinet appointed her Parliamentary Vice-Minister [ja] for Internal Affairs and Communications in August 2022. She has since resigned from this position, because she had no intention of retracting some of her statements and to avoid disrupting administrative affairs, according to Kishida. When interviewed in that capacity, Sugita insisted that she had never dismissed diversity and had not discriminated against sexual minorities.^[2]

In December 2022, at the request of minister Takeaki Matsumoto, Sugita retracted and apologized for her past remarks regarding minorities, saying that they had "lacked consideration."^[4]

^ "杉田水脈 | 国会議員 | 議員情報 | 議員・役員情報 | 自由民主党". jimin.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved July 26, 2018.
^ ^a ^b ^c Ōno, Yukako; Nakajima, Maki (August 24, 2022). "History of sexist, anti-LGBTQ remarks by Japanese vice-minister Mio Sugita". Mainichi Daily News. The Mainichi. Retrieved October 21, 2022.
^ Cite error: The named reference mainichi2018-08-07ja was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ The Japan Times (December 2, 2022). "Japanese lawmaker retracts past remarks on LGBTQ and other minorities". Retrieved July 3, 2023.

[1] "杉田水脈 | 国会議員 | 議員情報 | 議員・役員情報 | 自由民主党". jimin.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved July 26, 2018.

[mainichi2022-08-23-2] Ōno, Yukako; Nakajima, Maki (August 24, 2022). "History of sexist, anti-LGBTQ remarks by Japanese vice-minister Mio Sugita". Mainichi Daily News. The Mainichi. Retrieved October 21, 2022.

[mainichi2018-08-07ja-3] Cite error: The named reference mainichi2018-08-07ja was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[:1-4] The Japan Times (December 2, 2022). "Japanese lawmaker retracts past remarks on LGBTQ and other minorities". Retrieved July 3, 2023.

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