 Some Liberal Democratic Party members made controversial statements, such as Katsuei Hirasawa who argued in a speech in February 2019 that the "nation would collapse" if everyone were gay.Another ruling party lawmaker, Mio Sugita, published a magazine article in 2018 describing same-sex couples as "unproductive" because they do not have children.In March 2017, Tomoya Hosoda was elected to the Iruma Assembly, in the prefecture of Saitama.