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 | |
| Preceded by | Multi-member district |
| Succeeded by | Multi-member district |
| Constituency | Chugoku PR |
| In office 17 December 2012 – 21 November 2014 | |
| Preceded by | Multi-member district |
| Succeeded by | Multi-member district |
| Constituency | Kinki PR |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 22 April 1967 Kobe, Japan |
| Party | LDP (since 2017) |
| Other political affiliations | Your (2010–2012) JRP (2012–2014) PJK (2014–2017) |
| Children | 1 |
| Alma mater | Tottori University |
Mio Sugita (Japanese: 杉田 水脈, Hepburn: Sugita Mio; born 22 April 1967) is a Japanese politician. She is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan and served in the House of Representatives from 2012 to 2014, and again from 2017 to 2024.
Sugita has faced criticism for her statements and views, including comments regarding gender diversity and LGBT issues as well as Ainu and Korean individuals. She stated on a livestream in 2015 that the LGBT community should not receive support from taxpayer money, and repeated her claim in a monthly magazine piece in 2018.
The Kishida cabinet appointed her Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications in August 2022. She has since resigned from this position, because, according to Kishida, she had no intention of retracting some of her statements and to avoid disrupting administrative affairs. When interviewed, Sugita insisted that she had never dismissed diversity and had not discriminated against sexual minorities.
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."