Only a few months after a Tokyo lawmaker was heckled by her male colleagues in a sexist incident that made headlines around the world, the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly rekindled the controversy this week as another politician put his foot in his mouth.

¡°What was in the air was the kind of talk like, ¡®Why don¡¯t you get married?¡¯ I would also make that suggestion in private circumstances,¡± Liberal Democratic Party Assemblyman Zenji Nojima said while speaking to reporters Tuesday in describing the sexist heckling of Your Party member Ayaka Shiomura at the assembly in June.

¡°The problem was that such a remark was made to an individual speaker in a public setting,¡± said Nojima, 65.