Infidelity is immoral and will be criticized by the public, but it is not directly related to politics. Miyazaki should not have resigned. It might have been tough, but the correct thing to do would h

I'm guessing he resigned because his party told him to. What a set-up. All to avoid letting men be decent fathers.

Um, no. The point is that you don't want this type of guy to be responsible for running the country.

@gokai - you mean a man who has extramarital affairs? If that were the case then the current and past leaders of most countries would all (have) be(en) bad at running their country.

Infidelity is immoral and will be criticized by the public, but it is not directly related to politics

Immorality is expected of politicians.

Societies everywhere would benefit more from an educated populace focused on politicians' immoral policy-making and fiscal indiscretions rather than a celebrity -obsessed culture like focus on their sexual peccadilloes.

I disagree. Immorality is a character issue and character is important in politics. We all have character flaws, but when we break marriage vows, this reveals something about a person and it does definitely make it difficult to trust what they say and promise as a politician. It is hard enough to trust even without that kind of an issue.

And in Miyazaki's case, his hypocrisy did him in - taking maternity leave and then betraying his wife and child in their time of need!

I agree with his decision.

I see it as similar to the case of Larry Craig, the US politician who in the public eye attacked homosexuality and was later busted for "disorderly conduct" - namely by soliciting sex from strangers in an airport men's room. Seeking sex from strange men didn't prove Craig was unable to govern, but doing it while legislating against homosexuality in the public eye shows a deep hypocrisy that does show he's unable to govern.

Miyazaki presents himself as a kind of model of care for his wife in public while in private actively neglecting his wife. Having an affair doesn't make him unfit to lead, but that hypocrisy does.

@katsu: To call his actions hypocritical assumes that an adulterous husband is automatically a bad husband and father.

I have to agree with this quote. What does having affairs have to do with governing and policy-making? If this was a political crime, then yes he should resign. But for an affair, unless he was having dates with this woman when he should have been at work, he shouldn't have to lose his job for this.

Becky was persecuted just for having sex. So I guess it makes sense for the media to attack this politician. I agree. He shouldn't have to lose his job. Just like Becky shouldn't have lost her sponsors.

MariaFEB. 15, 2016 - 11:22AM JST @katsu: To call his actions hypocritical assumes that an adulterous husband is automatically a bad husband and father.

No, that's an incorrect assumption on your part. The hypocrisy doesn't come from the adultery. The hypocrisy comes from the fact that he was taking time off from his job officially to support his wife and her needs, while days before she gave birth he was spending time away from her with another woman. The marital infidelity of a stranger doesn't matter to me, but there is no way a person can honestly justify taking time off work claiming a need to support one's spouse when one is at the same time abandoning that spouse during a time of real need so they can play with someone else. You cannot square that circle.

katsu - succinctly put.

The hypocrisy was the bathing in the nation-wide glow as a super-husband / father - one of the surely needed role models of a new generation - only to be found lacking in those same qualities expected of him. Which hasn't set him apart from a myriad of members of the old school.

Too bad more ldpers don't resign there is no shortage of them that have multiple reasons to do so but never do

Scandals can bring shame to party and government... so of course he had to go. Politicians are meant to be held to a higher level of morality than we common people... although of course we all know they are lying, cheating immoral lowlives who only care about themselves.

I'm guessing he resigned because his party told him to. What a set-up. All to avoid letting men be decent fathers.

I guess good fathers are out porking their mistress when their wife is in labor with his child?

To call his actions hypocritical assumes that an adulterous husband is automatically a bad husband and father.

Oh, but he is hypocritical; he is a bad husband, and he is now a bad father, no assumption is necessary, he admitted such himself. During his paternity leave he wasn't at the hospital taking care of his wife, and waiting the arrival of his new baby, he was out banging a "talento". And apparently he was out banging others within days of his marriage. This guy is a lowlife sleaze (no wonder he became a politician), and he should be running a hostess club or a brothel.

No. He would never "win back the public trust."

So long as he's doing a good job

I cant really tell which is worse: the US republicans or the LDP