柳沢発言に対する海外の反応を見てみましょう。以下は，2/5午前11時25分の時点で，Googleで最初にヒットしたブログの書き込みです。
Japan minister calls women 'birth giving machines'
What a chauvinist!! I didn't know dinosaurs still existed. Totally outrageous!
The number of women aged 15 to 50 is fixed. As we have a fixed number of birth-giving machines and devices, all we can ask of them is that each do their best.
Asahi Shimbun - Hakuo Yanagisawa, minister of health, labor and welfare, felt the wrath of women and the opposition parties Sunday after he labeled women "birth-giving machines" in a speech.
The 71-year-old member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Lower House made the comment at a meeting in Matsue of LDP supporters of the Shimane prefectural assembly.
He admitted his remark on Saturday was inappropriate.
（後略）
http://chineseinvancouver.blogspot.com/2007/01/japan-minister-calls-women-birth.html
chauvinistというのが，性差別論者に対する最大の蔑称であることは言うまでもありません。
なお，このブログ記事には，次のタグが付いています。
Tags: japan, chauvinism, chauvinistic, chauvinist, women, women's rights, birth rate, birth giving machines
まさしく日本の名折れ，恥……だと思うのは，わたしだけ？
続いてJapan Today(1/28の記事）です。
Health minister Yanagisawa refers to women as 'birth-giving machines'
Sunday, January 28, 2007 at 06:39 EST
MATSUE ― Health minister Hakuo Yanagisawa compared women to "birth-giving machines" in a speech delivered Saturday explaining the declining birthrate, one of the major policy challenges for the government.
Addressing prefectural assembly members of the Liberal Democratic Party in Matsue city, the 71-year-old Yanagisawa touched on the nation's declining birthrate and said, "The number of women aged between 15 and 50 is fixed. Because the number of birth-giving machines and devices is fixed, all we can ask for is for them to do their best per head."
In his 30-minute address, while making the allusions, Yanagisawa added such remarks as "I'm sorry to call them machines" and "I hope they'll forgive me for saying machines."
Later in the day in Kakegawa, Shizuoka Prefecture, Yanagisawa told a Kyodo News reporter, "Immediately after making the remark, I retracted it because it was too uncivil, and I continued talking, although I don't recall what specially I said to withdraw it."
On the intent of using the metaphor, the minister said, "I was making a speech on demography, and in order to make it easier to produce an image, I used the word child-producing machines."
His remark drew fire from some quarters. "I feel extremely provoked," said writer Izumi Momose. "Women give birth not to resolve the declining birthrate issue but most probably giving birth makes them happy."
Another female writer, Michiko Yoshinaga, said, "Measures to fight the falling birth rate are about thinking hard about why women are shunning having children. I feel sorry a person who has to take the lead in the effort was looking at women as 'birth-giving machines."'
"Now that we know how the health and labor minister views women and what kind of person he is, I will have a hard time believing that whatever measures he offers would be for taking the side of women," she said.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare revised downward its population estimate in December, projecting Japan's total population to fall to around 38 million from now to 89.93 million in 2055.
Yanagisawa said at that time, "There are many young people who want to have children. In order to meet such a wish, we would like to make utmost efforts."
© 2007 Kyodo News. All rights reserved. No reproduction or republication without written permission.
淡々と「事実」だけ引いています。こういう「事実」だけで十分に「物語るものがある」ように思います。
一方，次はFeministing.comから。
January 29, 2007
Baby machines, we are.It’s always nice to see the leaders of this world allowing their sexist side to slip out. Japan’s health minister described women as “birth-giving machines” during a public speech on the declining birthrate this Saturday.
Japanese Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa made the comment, which he’s obviously been getting a load of shit for:
“The number of women between the ages of 15 and 50 is fixed. The number of birth-giving machines (and) devices is fixed, so all we can ask is that they do their best per head,”
What I absolutely love is that immediately after making the statement, he says, "Although it may not be so appropriate to call them machines."
Not so much, Minister, not so much.
http://feministing.com/archives/006429.html
皮肉がきいてますね〜！
